


Curiosity Killed the Cat

by lets_keep_walking



Category: Faithtale (Undertale), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Science Experiments, Slow Burn, a bunch of things in this au is different from the main canon, check the authors out they're awesome, faithtale's a cute au and deserves more fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2018-12-05 17:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11582979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lets_keep_walking/pseuds/lets_keep_walking
Summary: She really shouldn't be rude. She's not supposed to judge a book by its cover, nor a person by how they look, and If she did she'd be no better than the humans in the city. She already did enough by staring at them like she had no manners, but they were just so new. And kind of anti-climactic in a way, although Frisk never really had anything to base their looks off of.But what the actualfuck.





	1. It's Not Rocket Surgery

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Call me Cloud? Cloud.
> 
> Anyways, there's gonna be some Portuguese in here, and by them will be an asterisk (*) with the translation when you select them, hope that clears things up.
> 
> [Here's the comic!](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160486351734/faithtale-au-chapter-1-promising-student) Faithtale belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr!
> 
> The comic is a work in progress, but it's great!

Red and white filled her vision as she clutched her sister's body close to her chest, sobbing. What the hell did she just _do_? She was right there. Frisk could've done anything, a flap of a butterfly's wing might've saved her sister's life.

But _no_ , she didn't listen to what Charlotte had to say, all because she was still miffed at what some gang had to say about her family. And what had that stubbornness cost her?

Charlotte laid there in Frisk's arms, her neck tilted back, the ginger fringes of her hair spilling over one eye, and if Frisk looked hard enough, she could see the red that was beginning to soak into her hair...

Frisk flinched, holding Charlotte tighter to her. She looked like she was sleeping, the red flush of blood in her cheeks making it look like she'd pop up like a cork, laugh, and taunt Frisk for crying over that frog Charlotte'd accidentally killed by the lake that one time, like she'd always do.

But she didn't. Instead, a familiar golden chain slid onto Charlotte's sternum. The gravity of her neck's angle must've dragged it down. Frisk was quick to unhook it and shove it into her pocket as the EMTs gently removed Charlotte's body from her grasp. Since she was rather... _unresponsive_ , they asked Frisk for her name, her age, date of birth.

Frisk gave them the info they asked for. Gee, the street asphalt sure looked interesting.

"Can you tell me what happened, _senhorita_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/portuguese-english/Senhorita)?" one of them asked. Frisk looked up, pushing the brown out of her eyes. Charlotte always liked her hair color. Charlotte liked a lot about Frisk.

And now she would carry that guilt for the rest of her life.

" _Ela está morta_[ _*_](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/she%27s+dead). I killed her," Frisk said simply, warmth pricking unbidden in the corner of her eyes and then spilling. " _Deus me ajude_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/god+help+me#Deus+me+ajude), I killed her."

_It was all her fault._

And then she was up, ignoring the woman's protest and ducking through the crowd of people that'd gathered around (couldn't they mind their own business?) and running.

It was just a couple of words, and she should've known better to upset the _Morto_ —a gang that'd recently set up shop in her part of town. One of their men had a keen eye on Frisk and her sister, often passing by with drunken jokes and rude humor, but directed at Frisk, and only at Frisk. Neither of them liked it, but unless they had an army to fight the gang down there was nothing they could do about it.

And then he made a pass at _Charlotte_.

Frisk considered herself to be a genuinely nice person, but her sister was everything to her. There was no way she was losing her to some rotten jail break-out.

She told him off with a, ah, _colorful_ vocabulary about how people like him were ruining her home town and that he should go and take his bottle of _Caipirinha_  and shove it down his throat and out his _ass_ before she did it for him.

Little to say, he wasn't happy about that. Not one bit.

Was it bad that Frisk recognized the person driving the car?

She stumbled as she ran through the forest, her feet stirring up clouds of dusty loam. What was she doing? Where was she going? There was something thick and heavy lodged in her throat, and she let out a throaty gasp as she ran, her feet pounding through the forest floor.

There was one place Charlotte loved the most. There was a clearing on Mount Ebbot, the one thing between the rest of the mountain and the huge gaping crater that monsters had surfaced from.

 _Monsters_.

Frisk still couldn't believe it. Monsters surfaced just over one hundred fifty years ago, and according to history, humans hadn't...been the most accepting. But over the years, they chose to stay on Mount Ebbot, their little settlement bordered by a huge stone wall.

Eventually people got used to the fact that monsters were here to stay, but that didn't improve the piss-poor attitude towards them. Frisk itched to get behind the border and understand if the monsters were as bad as people said. Judging by how minorities were treated, Frisk doubted that.

But anyways. Back to Charlotte and her weird obsession with the hole.

Machines that'd been sent down there didn't come back, and their sensors were too damaged to pick up any readings. But despite all that, Charlotte said that the it was her favorite part of the clearing.

"It's the unknown," she had said back when they were kids, back when they hadn't been made aware of the monsters' existence, sitting in their little makeshift treehouse. "There could either be something down there, or nothing at all. Either way, it's still really interesting."

Oh, if only she knew.

Charlotte had an odd way of doing things. Whatever she could be working on, she'd try it multiple times, just to see the outcomes. It was never 'because I should' or 'because I would' it was more like, 'because I _can'_. Because the things she did were simple and harmless, why couldn't she see where other routes take her?

She was...was there a word to describe an open opportunist? Someone who, didn't take certain paths because they wanted something, someone who just took paths to see where they would take them, with no regard for the ones involved.

She definitely wasn't an opportunist, but she didn't wing things either.

Wasn't.

 _Wasn't_.

Frisk took a deep breath, and collapsed to her knees next to a tree. One little word shouldn't have this much of an impact, but it wasn't the word, it was who it was _directed_ and _attached_ to.

Frisk felt around for the locket, the hairs on her skin raising. She tugged it out of her pocket and gripped it in her hand, staring at it.

Something warm and constricting bloomed in her chest as she twirled it around in her hands.

_Just keep breathing. It'll be fine._

Her fingers gripped the clasp on the side, and Frisk ignored the fluttering thrum of her heartbeat, the tattoo of her existence pounding in her ears. She should stop.

But she just. She needed to see Charlotte again. Not her body, anything but her body. It just made it look like Charlotte would open her mouth and start talking to Frisk like nothing happened, she didn't die, she was _fine_ , and while Frisk could dream and hope that she would be alright, that just. Wasn't. Going. To happen.

And she didn't want Charlotte's remains to be a reminder of how hopeless the situation was. She wanted to see Charlotte the way she always was, with a silly grin on her face.

Frisk swallowed, flipping the locket open.

She looked at the picture. Frisk had her arms wrapped around Charlotte, who was eating a chocolate bar and was looking at the camera rather surprised. They had been singing along to one of the songs on the radio, the ones with the faster pace. Frisk could feel herself rocking slightly—not slightly, she was shaking still, and her knees felt like lead.

_'Best Friends Forever!'_

The greenery of her surroundings faded, blending into the hard familiar staccato of her heartbeat. It was so loud.

 _Just keep listening_ , it said, it promised, it soothed. _It'll be okay_ , it said.

Shakily, Frisk got up, clinging to the branches of the tree next to her as she situated herself. There was something foreign inside her stomach, a building pressure just in front of her lungs. She needed to move, feel her blood bumping and get herself under control.

In the midst of her panic, she shook off the feeling of someone watching her.

She hooked the locket around her neck and took off again for the clearing. She just needed to calm down and sit in their old treehouse (was it still there?) and just let the memories of Charlotte flood her surroundings (was it good or bad to remember lost loved ones? didn't matter. just keep moving), right?

She tripped and was sent tumbling to the ground, the treehouse in the far distance. No! She had to keep going, had to keep moving. Had to calm down. _Charlotte_.

Charlotte was gone, all because of her. All because she couldn't let go of a stupid grudge and now she was _gone_ , she was _never coming back_ , why was Frisk even thinking of hoping that she'd be okay, _what was wrong with her?_

"N- _no_!" Great. Now she was talking to herself. Just let the whole forest in on her existential crisis, why don't you?

Frisk coughed as she began to quake, a feeling similar to when she reached the peak of a roller coaster but never going over the wave, always suspended on the crest without warning of when or how she'd go over it. Would she coast over or slam and crash? Would she scream or close her eyes in quiet acceptance? Who was on the ride with her? Was there anyone at the control station?

Frisk felt her body curl in on herself, trembling like she had a fever. She hissed, stretching herself out of her cocoon and got back up to her feet. If she kept moving, her body wouldn't find places to shake.

The bushed behind her were rustling. She picked up her pace.

She stumbled as she ran, often nearly dropping to the ground when her body felt as if it burn itself out. She just had to keep running. Everything was a work of transfer. Transfer the shaking in her legs to her arms so she could run, transfer the heat in her core to the outside air so she could breathe.

If she kept breathing, she could keep running. If she kept running, she could get to the clearing.

She gasped in relief when her fingertips met the cool wood of the treehouse. Already the incessant tantrum her heart was throwing began to quell, and the fog clouding around her head began to clear. This was their feel-good place. Nothing but feel-good memories and the occasional Tupperware box lived here.

Frisk was the quieter girl, with Charlotte being the more ostentatious of the two. At some point, Frisk adopted ASL with the help of her deaf neighbor. Sometimes it was easier to say things if they weren't actually said, and Charlotte got that. The only problem was the learning barrier. Their mother wasn't happy with her daughter going from talking to sign language to talking again and then back to sign language, insisting that a girl like her would never go far if she didn't speak. And it got difficult to control the movements with her hands—the first couple of weeks of signing left her hands sore and the positions out of place (whenever she'd spell, her h's would look like g's and her p's looked like k's).

Frisk took a deep breath, still trembling, but the shaking was progressively getting shorter and less violent. She laid on the cool damp grass and stared up at the stars, the brown of her hair splaying over her right eye. She wondered how Charlotte would fair if Frisk was the one who got shoved in front of—

"Well, well, well. Who do we 'ave here?"

She froze, the icy anxiety sinking into her bloodstream. She took deep breaths as she stood up. She recognized that voice.

The smug bastard that'd caused her misery.

"You _monster_."

"Heh heh heh. C'mon, _boneca_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/portuguese-english/boneca). Don't you know how to greet a friend? Turn 'round 'n shake my hand."

" _Vai-te foder_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/fuck+you)," Frisk hissed. She didn't look behind her to know that there were more of them.

She really did not want to deal with this right now. She's still reeling from her little trip down Guilt Lane. Trying to get around the fact that her sister and best friend was gone really didn't match with getting beat up by the people that killed her in the first place.

The man behind her tsked like she was a child who got her hand stuck where it wasn't supposed to. She heard footsteps.

"Y'see, _menina_[*](http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-portuguese/girl), I really didn't take well to what ya told me few days ago, 'n now look what happened. 'S a shame what happened to your sister, really. Then again, it makes ya wonder what'd happen if it was you who was got, eh?"

 _Stop_.

Frisk felt herself mull over it, much to her dismay. Would Charlotte be crying? Feel as guilty as Frisk did?

 _Please_.

Charlotte was never much of crier, but she never hid from her problems. Why put off something tomorrow that could be done today, right? If something happened, it happened. Best to see what you could make out of it.

That said, Charlotte was defensive, especially over the things she cared about. If you talked shit, you got hit.

The air was clear out here. The forest floor had that light growth of grass—not the thick unruly meant-for-summer kind, the wispy strands that were still cool to the touch, the last remains of winter, thin but firm, difficult to uproot.

"What do you want from me?" Frisk asked to the open air, hands in front of her so the man couldn't see how much she was shaking. The heard another rustle to her left, accompanied by on just to her right.

The men inside them lunged for her at the same time, and she ducked, tucked inside herself, and rolled forward, smirking when she heard them collide into each other. Idiots.

Frisk gently ran her hand just above the grass, letting the tips tickle her palm. Unfortunately, rolling meant she could see the man's face, and she bristled when she caught him smiling at her.

"Aw, lookit that," he teased, flicking the ash off of the cigarette he was holding. "The little _gatinho_[*](http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-portuguese/kitten) got spitfire. That's what I like about you."

He'd get a lot more if he wouldn't shut his _fucking_ _mouth_.

"What do. You want from me?"

He smirked. "An apology."

Frisk shoved away her momentary surprise. "Fine. Sorry for damaging your fragile masculinity, _maldito_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/you+fucking)—"

Frisk hissed as she was met with a swift punch to her abdomen and lurched backwards, snarling when the men from before grabbed her from both sides. She squirmed in their grasp. She refused to go down like this.

" _Menina má_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/bad+girl)," the man growled, and began walking up her to her. He stopped, just short of in front of her, and looked her over, yanking her hair (to which Frisk replied with a startled yelp) and examining the rest of her, thankfully refraining from touching her further (although Frisk could see the look in eyes, what he would do to her if he had his way, and it sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine).

"Think she'll do, boss?" asked the man on her right. Charlotte's killer chuckled darkly, reaching over to tweak her nose and he cupped her face.

"She'll do fine," he said, and Frisk whipped her head and bit down, hard on his hand. The man yelped, drawing his hand back, and Frisk was satisfied to see blood where she bit down.

_Serves him fucking right._

A punch to her right cheek sent her reeling, and she hung her head automatically, wincing when he roughly grabbed her by the chin and brought her up to his line of sight.

"Listen here 'n listen good, ya bitch," he growled. "I ain't got no patience for your type, so imma'na letcha off with a warning. _Não me provoques_[*](http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/don%27t+test+me)." He let go of her chin, and Frisk dropped her head again.

To hell with the shaking. She wasn't even being held up by her own legs anymore, so she retreated into herself.

Charlotte wasn't infallible. She had her moments. Frisk recalled finding her bent over a wilting buttercup, hiding her face behind her hands.

"I tried to save it," she had whispered. "I really did."

She seized up. _Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?_

There were yellow flowers near the gaping maw. Were they buttercups?

Frisk stood up. _Why was it suddenly so hard to see?_

She coughed, hopefully dislodging the lump in her throat. Charlotte loved hanging out by the hole. Frisk never understood why. Charlotte was always so indecisive, skirting in front of the hole and then back to safety.

"One of these days you're going to fall in," Frisk had said.

"I'd like to see you get me out when that happens," Charlotte readily replied. She'd approach the bottomless crater and would sit in front of it on her knees, her hands on either side of her body, gripping the grass and holding her afloat. Charlotte would hold herself there and peer into the hole, craning her neck this way and that as if something would suddenly shoot up from who knows how many feet in the ground.

Frisk gulped, wishing she could reach for the locket. But if she closed her eyes...

She could feel it beating.

Shuddering, and vehemently ignoring the men talking, she hung her head and softly began to cry for her sister. For her mother. For her family.

What would they do to her? She'd heard of all the people disappearing around the city. Maybe she would...die? Is that the word she's looking for? Is that what she wanted?

No, no, she didn't want to die, per se, she just wanted to disappear. Stop existing. If she weren't here, Charlotte would probably be at home, pretending that she wasn't in the middle of knitting a sweater. Her mother wouldn't be so disappointed. Besides, she'd hurt people even more if she were killed.

The man noticed her silent breakdown, the tears streaming down her face, and smiled at her. She hated him for it.

"Aw, come now, _querida_[ _*_](http://dictionary.reverso.net/portuguese-english/querida) _,_ don't be like that. Everything's gonna be just fine," he soothed, and then snapped his fist back in an aim to strike.

Frisk closed her eyes, allowing herself to pretend for one moment that she wasn't there.

* * *

Just thinking about the barrier hurt Alphys' head.

There was just something off about the colors swirling on the surface. They were unnatural. Seeing the color red on anything else—literally anything else—shouldn't make her want to run for the hills. But on the semi-reflective surface, the color twisted and turned in ways it wasn't made for, and something coiled deep in her stomach whenever she envisioned it.

Thank goodness it's gone now.

The eight human that fell broke the barrier, and the Monsters were free to roam the surface. The only problem being that humans didn't take so kindly to change. The first few months were tough, negotiating trades and deals to increase their curiosity and ward off hostility. Asgore always said that them being curious was always better than having them threaten the very ground they walked on, and while Alphys _did_ want to stand by her king and her people...

Alphys sighed, rubbing her temples to ward off the thought. It was already so late at night, and the fallen barrier should be the last thing on her mind, especially with the day she had.

There had been another human trade.

Alphys _hated it_. People would magically vanish from their homes overnight only to appear for the trade, drugged, gagged, and bound, all because humans wanted a taste of the magic they no longer had.

Don't get Alphys wrong, it's not like the humans had shitty conditions, it's just...what's the word for it? Inhumane?

Well, whatever it is, Alphys didn't like it. Not one bit.

It was a grotesque picture when Alphys and Gaster arrived where Asgore and Toriel had found them. The dealers always 'roughed up' the humans they captured, if you could call 'rough up' next to killing. Sometimes the amount of damage varied between the human's skin color or religion or even what they were wearing.

Alphys didn't get it. They were all human, right? And what they wore or how they looked or what they believed in shouldn't be reason to nearly maim them, right?

How could humans hate each other so much? Alphys heard the stories, of the cheated minorities and the crimes when humans'd go missing and yet never appear at the Monsters' doorstep. It made her scared. If they had such a capacity to kill, Alphys could only imagine what their LV and EXP looked like.

They human girl they'd been given was in awful condition.

Her skull was cracked and spine heavily damaged with an awfully bruised lung, judging by how much blood she was coughing up. She stretched over Tori's arms like a limp noodle, cold and lifeless.

The boss monster barely managed to conceal her disgust as she handed over the cartons full of magic.

It had taken a great bit of healing (it turns out that despite the fact that humans no longer have magic, their bodies still know what to do with it in their system) just to cover the major injuries. Then came the matter of stunting the lacerations on her arms and legs. The poor thing barely made it with them back to New Ebbot.

It was absolute chaos in the lab. Students, doctors, and trainees were all running amok, as they usually did when a new trade was initiated. Toriel had managed to nab the spine and cracked skull, but little magic had reached her lung, causing her chest to seize as air began to collect between the lung tissue and the chest cavity.

They did the basics, remove her clothing, hook them up to the ventilator and undergo an unorthodox mix of surgery and healing magic, etcetera. Her lung was still weak, most likely still recoiling from the lack of oxygen.

How would she be able to breathe on her own? Magic only did so much, it just accelerated the speed of the cells replicating, and Alphys read that quick recuperation of cells lead to mutations. When cells replicate, the DNA is replicated in turn, and doing something like that in quick succession is prone make a few mistakes.

The girl was on a mattress in Alphys' office. She was still hooked to the ventilator, covered in bandages from head to toe, mostly on her arms and legs, not to mention the gash on her stomach. But with the blanket pulled up to her neck and the machine behind the headboard, she was a near spitting image of normalcy.

She'd wake up at any second. What was Alphys going to say to her? _'Oh, hey, you've been betrayed by your race and sold to us for the foreseeable future and have almost no chance of getting out. Nice to meetcha!'_

"Oh, w-who am I k-kidding?" Alphys mumbled sullenly, resting her head in her hands. "I'm not a people's person, I c-can't even ask G-gaster what kind of c-coffee he wants in the morning..."

She sighed, running her hands over her head. Welp. The human was stable so far, time to check and see what kind of SOUL color she had. What color would they get this time? They already had so many run-ins with Perseverance, next to Justice, with a couple of Patience and Integrity's here and there. Kindness and Bravery were rare.

Carefully, Alphys approached the bed, gently pushing the blanket aside to reach the human's sternum. Closing her eyes, she ran the tips of her fingers over the skin in a circular motion, concentrating on what rested inside, and called to it, coaxing the SOUL out into the open.

The room was bathed in red light.

Alphys stared, flabbergasted, at the red beating soul hovering above her hands. _Holy shit._ They did it? They actually found it? The one thing they were looking for?

Determination was one of the rarest type of SOULs. Only one had fallen, the first human, back when it was just Gaster running the labs. They were sickly, and had died within the decade. There hadn't been a single determined soul since.

But Alphys was excited. Back with the first human, Gaster was able to extract some of their determination and inject it into himself, and he found out that while Determ was absolutely _not_ for monsters, it was a perfect conduit for magic.

But humans wouldn't be pleased if they found out that only Determined SOULs could wield monster magic, but who said that Determination couldn't be injected into other human SOULs? They already had about twenty or so humans in the lab. There had to be a way to share the Determination somehow. If it didn't work on monsters, it could work on humans, right?

Hypothetically, but Alphys tossed that thought down the mental equivalent of a drain. She had to remain positive! There was a chance that humans could share their traits, there had to be!

Alphys smiled at the little cartoony heart. Oh, if only past-her could see her now. Maybe it'd get her to stop thinking about that god forsaken barrier.

Alphys could already feel the impending headache that came with thinking about it, and quickly tucked the SOUL back inside its owner. Best not to taint the girl with any malicious intent.

How were they going to keep her alive? Her lung was still recovering and Alphys couldn't keep her on the ventilator forever if she wanted to get the most determination out of her.

The human groaned in her sleep, wincing when the blanket rubbed against her bandages. Alphys stepped away from their bedside, hastily snatched her phone from her desk and ducked out of the room, keeping the door closed to a crack before pulling up a familiar number. He wouldn't be awake at this hour, so she opted to text him, her fingers flying over the keys.

_Gasta Blasta Masta: 2:37a.m._

_You will NOT BELIVE THIS!!_

_COME TO THE LABS RIGHT AWAY!!!_

Alphys bit her lip. Would that be enough? They had emergencies at the lab beforehand. She added one last text before returning to her office.

_Gasta Blasta Masta: 2:38a.m._

_one word: DETERMINATION_

* * *

"Are they okay?"

"How's she doing?"

"Is she _still_ on the ventilator?"

"What color is her SOUL?"

"A-alright, alright," Alphys hastened to say. The morning had come and with it brought the students, scientists, and trainees Gaster had enlisted to help with the experiments. Naturally, seeing that it was the first human to be traded with such a terrible condition in a long time, they were eager to know is she was okay.

But they had to wait.

"T-those of you that h-have human partners, go back and s-start with your morning procedures," Alphys announced, ignoring the chorus of groans and complaints sent her way. They knew the rules. She had to talk to Gaster first.

"Aw, c'mon!" one bunny monster—Amaryllis—protested. "You've done this every time a human's been traded in—"

"Only because it's protocol—"

"—and we just wanna know if they're okay. Is that too much to ask for?"

"More like you just wanna know if you lost the bet!" piped a Whimsum in passing. Alphys snickered behind her hand and Amaryllis bristled, a red blush covering her face.

"I-it's okay, Amari," Alphys said, patting the bunny monster's shoulder. "But rules are rules. I talk to Gaster and then we talk to you. Okay?"

Amaryllis sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Fine," she said, then shuffled off, muttering something about the color purple. Alphys headed back inside her office. Coffee sounded just about good right now, Gaster hadn't checked in, and the human would be awake soon enough...

She shrugged her lab coat on and popped her head back outside, asking one of the nearby students to watch her door while she headed over to the cafeteria.

Her steps were quick and brisk. She needed to _one_ , get some coffee for both her and G, seeing as it was going to be a long morning, and _two_ , see if she could borrow Toriel for a while, seeing as she was the most diplomatic, second to Asgore. Honestly, given her nature and sweet disposition, Toriel could pass for queen if it wasn't for her easy friendship with Asgore.

There was a set of elevators when she reached the end of the hall. The doors opened, she stepped inside, and punched in the number for the first floor in the labs. If Gaster was coming in today, she would meet him there.

She sighed, tapping her index finger against her snout. Today _should_ be a good day. They found the human with the SOUL trait they needed. Technically, since human SOULs share the same biology, sharing the trait shouldn't be too difficult. They all had a spark of Determination, it's what made up the framework of the entire SOUL. But that's just it; Determination is just a base, so it's puzzling to imagine the base building up onto itself.

And just the word— _Determination_. It's so open, unlike the other traits where one word primarily decides what the human'd act on. Bravery? More likely to jump into the underground than fall. Kindness would be on the defense of a fight rather than offense. And Perseverance, well, speaks for itself.

Determination is up to interpretation, it's what's supposed to _fuel_ a trait, not _be_ one. _Determined_ to be Kind, _Determined_ to be Brave, _Determined_ to Persevere. Not just. Determined to be Determined. That literally opens the door to anything else. This human could be Determined to do _anything_ , and that's what scares her.

Alphys briefly wondered if the mages even understood that Determination was a trait when the elevator pinged, settling on the first floor. Alphys stepped out of the elevator and hopped into the line of the cafeteria. She already knew what she would get; a mocha latte with cream and a stick of cinnamon to stir it with.

What would Gaster get? It's usually random from him, just as long as it's good. Something black with a metric fuckton of cream and sugar, probably.

"Morning, Alphys!" the Froggit at the counter chirped. "Just the usual?"

"Uh, y-yeah," Alphys stammered, adjusting her glasses. "And for Gaster, just—"

"Black, with whipped cream. Like, a bunch of it," said a voice from behind Alphys, lilted and smooth. "Toss in a cherry on top just because."

"G-gaster!" Alphys squeaked, and the Froggit dissolved into laughter. "You n-need to stop doing that!"

Gaster chuckled, patting Alphys on the shoulder and giving her a lopsided smile when she gave him a pout. "Sorry, Alph," he says, reaching over her to pay and grab for their drinks. He gestured with his shoulder for her to follow him, and together they made their way to the elevators.

"Sooooo," Gaster began conversationally, handing Alphys her latte and pressing the blank button sandwiched between the up and down buttons on the panel, "how was your night?"

"Gee, I-I dunno." Alphys took a sip of her coffee. "I w-watched over the human with the answers to pretty much all of our problems. How was _yours_?"

Gaster laughed, ushering her inside the elevator once the doors opened, and his demeanor changed when they closed.

He swirled the up in his hand, looking amused at the amount of whipped cream the Froggit had given him, and then popped the cherry into his mouth. "What were they wearing during the trade?"

Alphys blinked. "What?"

"They'll ask for their clothes when they wake," he answers casually.

"O-oh, right. Um..." Most of her clothes were scuffed and ripped in places, likely because of her handling. "She was wearing a striped sweater, blue shorts, and brown boots. O-oh! And a golden locket."

Gaster nodded. They were on the third floor. "How is she?"

"She's fine, I u-unhooked her from the O-two. Her spine and skull are coming along nicely, and we m-managed to patch up her l-lung. All she's got left now are the lacerations and the wounds, b-but I'm sure with time they'll fade."

His hand stopped moving. "And, her soul's trait...?"

"D-determination."

Gaster smiled, sipping his coffee. The elevator settled on the last floor with a _ping!_ and Alphys squeaked when the doors opened.

"Well, c'mon then. We shouldn't keep her waiting."

* * *

Glassy brown eyes opened up to the room above them. Then immediately winced.

Jesus Christ. Where the hell was she? What happened? She groaned at the dull ache at the back of her head. When she moved her arm to touch it she was met with another spark of pain and heard quick beeping.

There were bandages on her arm.

Horrified, she sat up, pulled the blankets down and gawked at herself. She was wearing pale blue shorts and a tank top with a pulse oximeter on her left index finger, and was dotted with cuts. There was a thick bandage wrapped around her stomach, her right thigh, her left ankle and right forearm. There rest of her was surprisingly devoid of bruises, making the tinier cuts—probably too small for a bandage—stand out against her tanned skin.

She took stock of her surroundings. Grey walls, a printer in the corner, and desktop computer to its side, along with a couple of stickers on the monitor and what looked like some weird Vocaloid figurine on the desk.

She turned back to her wounds. Were these intentional? She searched her memory, but all that came up was her sister and her locket. Her sister! Where was she? They were just on their way home. Frisk hoped she was okay.

She had to find a way out of here. Whoever patched her up must've known what happened to her right? Was she mugged? Her thoughts came back to that sleazy gang member, and she shivered. She hoped she wouldn't have to see him again.

The door clicked, and then opened.

* * *

The two of them headed back to her office, dismissing the student on-watch of the door, then opened it and walked inside.

There was a gasp, and the human girl's eyes flicked up to meet them. She was awake.

Awake and terrified would be Alphys' words, but awake nonetheless. The steady little beeps on the pulse monitor heightened, and Alphys couldn't help but shrink into her coat. She could only hope this wouldn't end badly. But if she woke up on a bed in a place she didn't recognize and humans were the ones who answered the door, how would she react?

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Gaster drawled, sporting a hand on his hip. Alphys knew what he was doing; being oblivious to obvious social cues for the sake f being casual. Gaster wasn't much of a people's person either, but that was something he could sweep under a rug.

Alphys, however, did not have that luxury, and could only give the human a nervous smile.

The human blinked, then flushed, slowly raising her hands.

 ***Sorry** , she signed. ***Never got to meet Monsters before**.

"I-it's okay," Alphys soothed, reminding herself to kick Gaster in the shin. There weren't any monsters past the border, she should be glad that the human wasn't outright trying to kill them right now. "Would you like some water?"

She nodded, slowly. ***Please**.

"Gaster would you mind getting the human something to drink?" Alphys asked sweetly. She frowned when he pouted. "Oh, go on, we both know how you get with the new ones. I'll talk to her."

Gaster sighed dramatically before leaving the room, his steps heard from behind the door.

Alphys turned back to the human, who looked less tense now that Gaster was out of the room. Well she didn't exactly look less tense, just really tired, sagging forward on her mattress, fiddling with the bandages on her forearm.

"U-uh, sorry about that. He can be a bit of a stickler whenever new humans are traded in."

***...Traded?**

"Oh, r-right, you ah, h-have questions, don't you? W-well, uh, allow me to explain."

* * *

When Frisk woke up this morning she didn't think she'd add being exchanged to monsters like she was some fucking token. And Alphys was some sort of orange-yellow dinosaur monster with owl-rimmed glasses and a dip in confidence. Oh, and don't get started with Frisk on fucking Skeletor in a lab coat and skinny jeans over there (how the _hell_ was his skull so malleable?). If she was dreaming this was a good time to wake up.

Monsters, at least, the two she had just met, were big. Alphys reached up to about Frisk's height, and while Frisk considered herself small for her age, Alphys could easily surpass her if she stood a little straighter. And the other one, whatever his name was. Frisk had to look up just to look at him.

She never really got a good look at his face, but thought it was odd that the little pin pricks of light in his eye (sockets??) didn't illuminate the rest of his skull. She had a feeling that even without them she still wouldn't see into them. They were just. Dark.

Darker, and yet so much _darker_. It made her shiver, so she pulled the blanket around her shoulders.

She really shouldn't be rude. She's not supposed to judge a book by its cover, nor a person by how they look, and If she did she'd be no better than the humans in the city. She already did enough by staring at them like she had no manners, but they were just so _new_. And kind of anti-climactic in a way, although Frisk never really had anything to base their looks off of.

But what the actual _fuck_.

The only reason people were disappearing was because they were being exchanged for? The _hell?_

Where did she even get all these injuries—did anyone even know how and why the monsters were doing this? And was Frisk really supposed to trust that these injuries weren't from them? Frisk curled into herself, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. When she searched her memory, nothing came up, except for a faint feeling of panic settling in her bones.

Something bad must've happened.

Alphys told her of her bruised lung, cracked skull and trauma to her spine. Apparently the group they were working with had to make it so the humans were injured before the monsters took them in. Frisk paled. She was supposed to be dead.

 ***Then how am I alive**? Frisk signed. Better to get her questions answered now and find a way out of here.

"Magic. N-no, really, I'm serious. Healing magic. It took a lot in order to get your spine and skull out of the way. You were seriously injured."

Frisk gaped. She heard of monsters being magical but anyone she would ask would either scrunch their face in disgust or change the subject. Now magic exists? It's been existing this whole time? Great. Fucking _perfect_. Everything Frisk ever knew was thrown out of the window. For all she cared the sky could be purple and there was air in space.

"W-well, what do you know about monsters?" Alphys suggested. "Maybe that way I-I'll know which q-questions to answer."

***There was a war. That's all I know.**

Alphys frowned. "R-really? That's it?" She sighed. "I take it that humans still aren't comfortable with us?"

Frisk nodded.

"After all this time?" asked Alphys. "It's been a century and a half, how long does it take for people to adjust to change?"

Frisk snorted, gaining a surprised look from Alphys. ***There was a time when humans used each other as slaves,** Frisk explained, not oblivious to the look of horror on Alphys face. **It's illegal now, but people like me are treated differently because of how dark their skin is.**

Alphys looked confused. "That doesn't make any sense. I mean, you're all human, right? And darker skin is just an increase in melanin, which doesn't cause harm to you, so..."

Frisk's opinion of Alphys brightened considerably. ***Yeah. I don't get it either. But that was centuries ago, and people still haven't changed.**

"Geez, with all that why do humans think _we're_ out to get them?"

The look Frisk gave her was nonplussed and Alphys flushed a light pink. ***Gee, wonder why.**

Frisk sighed. ***...Why was there a war?**

"Why do humans go to war?" Alphys asked, gently reaching over to remove the pulse oximeter from Frisk's finger. Frisk let her. Alphys was scaly and warm, something akin to a snake, but less rigid.

***Stupid stuff.**

Alphys nodded. "Stupid stuff. It wasn't even a war; there were no human casualties. They just slaughtered a bunch of us and shoved the rest under the mountain with a barrier in place so that we couldn't get out."

Frisk ignored the red flags going off in her head and gripped Alphys' hand. ***I'm so sorry** , she spelled out with her other. ***Haven't known you too long, but you seem real nice.**

Alphys smiled. "Thank you, human. Y-you don't seem too bad yourself."

Frisk didn't exactly trust Alphys yet, and with her situation, doubted she would (they had just met, after all, and all of this could be a ruse) but Alphys was shy, and sweet. Frisk could trust that.

 ***You can call me Frisk** , she signed, and inwardly smiled when Alphys beamed.

"Now it's your turn, Frisk," said Alphys excitedly. "Do _you_ have any questions?"

Oh, did she.

***Lots. Why am I here? Who was that man? Have you seen my sister? She looks like me but—**

"One at a time, one a time!" Alphys said hastily. "Y-you're the result of our recent trade, and we want to learn if humans are able to use monster magic."

If humans are able to use _what_ now?

 ***What?** Her hands were urgent in their signing. ***Monster magic? Me? Why?**

"T-that's classified information," Alphys said, and Frisk frowned. "My partner, Gaster, hang on a sec—Gas' you can come on in! I know you're out there!—he's the one running everything. You'll have to ask him."

Frisk tensed as the door knob wiggled, and then turned, and in walked the man that looked like he belonged in a nightmare. He was a skeleton with a long jagged crack running up from his crescent-shaped left eye and a similar one running down his right, ending on the corner of his crooked smile.

He looked perpetually amused.

"You rang?" he drawled, and passed the cup to Alphys, who promptly passed it to Frisk. She eyed it warily, and Gaster scoffed.

"It's not poisoned, Miss Frisk. I mean, what do you take me for, some sort of monster?"

Alphys groaned, and Frisk found herself snorting, and then giggling, the water churning inside the cup she held.

While she knew that she shouldn't be laughing amicably at what her captors said, she couldn't help it, he sounded so _offended_.

Gaster, evidently pleased with both of their reactions, rolled his shoulders and snapped his wrist forward to adjust the cuffs of his lab coat. Frisk pretended not to notice the holes in his hands or how malleable his face seemed to be.

"Now, I heard you have questions, my dear?"

Frisk took a sip of the water, noted that nothing tasted out of order, and then cleared her throat. "Yeah," she said, and Alphys face contorted into a look of surprise. "A ton."

"A _skele-ton_?"

 _What_.

"Gaster _no,_ " groaned Alphys, resting her head in her hands.

"Gaster yes."

Frisk couldn't help but let out another giggle. "Is he always like this?"

"Unfortunately, yes," said Alphys, glowering him down. Her glare held no venom though, and Gaster laughed, melodious and booming.

"She loves it though." He grinned, and affectionately gave her a noogie to her dismay.

"Anyways." Gaster steeped his bony fingers and turned back to Frisk. "Your questions?"

"Well, for starters, what's all this about monsters and magic and what do I have to do with it?"

"Well, Miss Frisk, I've been... _morbidly_ curious on the effects of monster magic on human SOULs, since human SOUL traits rise an...unexpected reaction when monsters come into contact with them."

***Human soul traits?**

Gaster blinked in surprise. "Alphys, you didn't tell her about SOULs?"

"I thought she already knew?"

Frisk glanced between the two. "What're souls?"

"Well this'll be fun," Gaster muttered under his breath. "Your SOUL is the embodiment of all that you are, and the culmination of your entire being."

" _What?_ " asked Frisk, absolutely confused. She's always heard of people having souls, but never something that was really talked about. And they had traits? She groaned inwardly. It was probably something else humans tried to hide from the rest of the world.

But still. She had a soul. What would it look like?

"We can show you yours, if you'd like," Gaster added calmly, as if he'd read her thoughts. Or probably her face. His right hand was behind his back, his left outstretched in front of her. Alphys suddenly looked alarmed, raising red flags in Frisk's head.

"I can see it?"

"But of course," said Gaster, and Alphys chose that moment to speak up.

"Gas', a-are you sure? You haven't seen a Determined SOUL since—"

"I'll be fine, Alph," Gaster reassured, and Frisk belatedly took notice of how softly he spoke with Alphys compared to the slight edge of caution to his voice when he spoke with her.

It was kinda cute.

"You ready?" Frisk blinked back to awareness, Gaster with a brow bone (raised.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered. Alphys covered her face with her hands.

"Alright then." Gaster's left hand, the one that was outstretched, twitched.

And Frisk was frozen place, paralyzed. She couldn't move from where she sat on the bed, and panic began to lace into her bloodstream, quickening the pace of her heart. She closed her eyes. This was it, she was gonna die, she wasn't ever going to see her sister again or even figure out why she couldn't remember how she got into this mess in the first place...

Frisk opened her eyes and belatedly noticed the colors around her fade to black when something blisteringly warm woke up in her chest just as his hand gripped the air and _tugged_.


	2. You Can Take One Man's Trash to Another Man's Treasure but You Can't Make it Drink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys really didn't know what to do. Calling someone on the phone would seem insensitive and suspicious, leaving the room would be even worse; Alphys didn't even want to think about what would happen if she escaped somehow, and trying to make her feel better was pointless. She always made things worse, she knew that. She was a clumsy scientist with a crying human on her hands and her best friend near wasting away, and she couldn't feel anymore useless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Gaster is an asshole and Alphys is taking none of his shit. Not anymore, at least.
> 
> Long title is long, but woop woop! Chapter two!
> 
> You guys remember that [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/tagged/comic) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, alright?

_What the hell._

In front of her was a red heart, just gently hovering over Gaster's left hand. The color in the rest of the room seemed to get darker the closer it things got to your soul, kind of like peering through sunlight.

It was tiny, much like her size and stature, but when she looked at it she could immediately feel the sense of familiarity rolling off of it in waves. Like finding an old toy she had as a kid, except raw, and warm, and exceptionally, _good_. When was the last time she had felt this kind of pressure on her chest without it trying to hurt her? This thing, this little heart, was undeniably hers.

As she sat there, with his outstretched hand right below the little red heart that was her own (it was starting to sync with her heartbeat, too), she could feel little memories being thrown her way, like if she was at the far end of a field and someone was shouting across it to her.

She felt overall warm, and kind of tingly, but nice. Like if someone wrapped her up in a fluffy blanket fresh out of the dryer, or that odd feeling of falling you get right before you go to sleep. The heat started in her chest, and then seeped throughout her body, making her feel rather relaxed. She sighed, tugging her pillow to her chest and breathing into it.

Gaster was staring at her soul. His posture hadn't changed, and his little eye lights? Blown wide. Kinda glimmery, too...wait, were those stars? His look of surprise melted into one of recognition, and he smiled fleetingly at her soul.

"Here," he whispered, surprising her with how gentle his voice was. It was almost on the same level as the one he used for Alphys. He moved in fluid motions, gently depositing the little heart into her cupped hands. Alphys was busily working away on the computer, occasionally sneaking glances and frowning.

What was that about?

Frisk turned her attention to Alphys before her soul demanded that she look at it again. It floated just above her hands and her fingers itched to curl in on themselves, to explore and traverse and commit to memory all the little things about her that she might not even know herself. It's, quite literally, all that she is. Her memories, her feelings, her selfishness, how she wants to help and help _so_ _much_ , how she can care so hard, and why she wants to, she needs to, why she feels compelled to do all of those things, all rolled up into one little bundle that was _right there—_

"Uh-I-wait, Frisk," Alphys blurted out suddenly. Frisk cocked a brow.

"You-ah-you really shouldn't...do that. Touch your SOUL, I mean."

"Why? Am I gonna hurt myself?" worried Frisk. She flattened her palms to keep her fingers from getting any closer to her soul.

Alphys squeaked, but when Frisk ripped her gaze from her soul, she was met with Alphys blushing furiously behind her hands. Frisk didn't know how to decipher Gaster's look.

"No, no," he sighed, bringing his right hand to his face. It made a little clicking sound when he did. "You woke up just a little while ago, and we wouldn't want you to overwhelm yourself and fall back asleep."

Frisk pouted. As tempting as it was to ignore what he said and raise her fingers to her soul, she really didn't want to sleep, no matter how relaxed she felt. Besides, what if she lost her memory again?

Yeah, no way. She wouldn't risk it.

Gaster and Alphys still look rather uncomfortable, Gaster still eyeing her soul with that oddly fond look of remembrance. Frisk didn't know how to feel about it.

"So...what _are_ soul traits?" inquired Frisk, half because she wanted to change the subject, and half because she wanted to know what hers was. Alphys straightened and yep, she was definitely taller than Frisk. Great.

Alph moved to hit a couple of keys and the printer whirred to life, spitting out a sheet of paper with various colored hearts, one looking suspiciously like Frisk's. She pointed to them as she spoke. "There are seven types of SOULs that humans have. Red for Determination-that's yours-Purple for Perseverance, Blue for Integrity, Cyan for patience, Green for Kindness, Orange for Bravery, and Yellow for Justice."

"Okay," said Frisk, watching her soul twirl around in her grasp. It was getting easier to look away from it now. "So why's mine so rare?"

"Because Determ is just a base," replied Alphys, looking at the paper. She looked more in her element when talking about the sciences. "In all of the SOULs we've examined, we've n-noticed that they all have a small wellspring of Determination inside them, and then their primary trait comes in next. That's what makes sense. People supposedly should be Determined to be what their SOUL trait stands for, r-right?

"But your SOUL...I don't get it." She sat next to Frisk with a red and a black pen in hand, flipping the paper over. She drew two little hearts with the black pen, filling one of them partially with red and leaving the other empty. "It's just the Determination stockpiling itself over and over, and we can't understand what it's so Determined to _do_." She fills one in completely as red, and uses the black pen to fill in the rest of the half-red heart. "It's like the SOUL is just...y'know, Determined to be Determined and that just doesn't _make any sense_." She threw her hands up in exasperation. "You get it?"

"Sorta." Of course people would be Determined to do their own thing, how would the world work any other way? "So like...determination is like the stuff the feeds the fire, but with my soul, it's like a fire that's never ending?"

Alphys nodded. "Exactly! And it makes no sense, how can something just build up on itself like that and how come Determination is the only one that's doing that?" She hopped off the bed, beginning to pace around the room. "We've had humans volunteer to scan their SOULs but I've never seen any of the other traits build up onto themselves. Oh, right, right, the Determ is the base they need in order to do that, but I wonder, SOUL colors _are_ complimentary, could the SOULs closest together on the color wheel build up if they used each other as a base?"

Frisk resisted a laugh. "Maybe?"

Alphys nodded absentmindedly. "But then again, Gaster found out that Determined SOULs can-hey, Gas', you alright?"

Alphys momentarily forgot about her little spiel about SOULs and grasped Gaster;s right hand. She glanced up worriedly at his face, which was no longer staring at Frisk's SOUL, but at nothing in particular. His eye lights weren't starry-eyed anymore—they're gone, in fact, and Frisk felt a strange chill creep up her spine when she stared at his sockets. Darker, darker, yet darker.

She no longer felt warm.

Alphys shook his hand. "Gas'? Gas', c'mon, speak to me."

"Is he okay?" asked Frisk, and his gaze turned to her.

And then the edges of his form started fizzling, accompanied by the sound of static. What the— _was he melting?_

"Frisk, you might wanna put your SOUL back in," whispered Alphys.

"Why? What's wrong with him?" The outer edges of his form was trembling, shivering almost, and his drooping socket began to _drag down his face. What._

"I'll tell you later but you just need to put your SOUL back inside. Like, right now."

Frisk really didn't like when random strangers told her what to do, but she also didn't like the look Gaster was giving her, so, begrudgingly, she brought her hands to her chest, and as if it was rehearsed, it slipped back inside her. She sighed, an unbidden wave of content washing over her.

It took him a moment, but soon after her soul was gone, Gaster's eye lights quickly flickered back into existence, and he shook his head, prompting Alphys to let go of him. She still looked worried.

And…angry?

"Apologies, my dear, that was rather...unprecedented. But it's fine. You have a lovely SOUL, and I'm excited at the prospect of working with you."

Before either of them can say a thing, he's already out the door, it gently clinking behind him.

"What."

"Ugh, I _hate_ it when he gets like this!" Alphys griped.

"Is he always like that?"

"No, not really, but when he is, he just shuts himself in his office and won't let anyone talk to him unless it's about the experiments." Frisk can't help but wince internally at the sound of that, reminded that she'd probably be one of them soon enough. "He won't even let _me_ talk to him, and-a- _and_ -" Alphys hiccups, her voice breaking, and then holds her head with her hands. Frisk patted her on the back.

She'd only been awake for fifteen minutes and someone's already crying. Way to go.

"I already know about all the stuff about his human friend," she sniffled. "There was a kid who fell into the underground a long time ago with a Determined SOUL, and were really good friends with Gaster before they got sick and died. He misses them a lot, and I guess your SOUL reminded him of 'em."

"That makes sense." Other than the fact that he's a couple centuries old, but yeah, sure.

"Yeah, but he can't just go bottling up all that. 'S not healthy, but I don't know what to do."

"Well..." How should she go about this? Wait, why was she even helping them anyway?

...Ugh, shut up. Her conscious wouldn't let her sleep if she didn't at least try to help her, dammit.

"How long as he been holding out?"

"Ever since the last one, and that was like a year ago, I dunno." she sniffled and wiped her eyes with her lab coat. "I just wish he would talk to me."

"Well, if he's been like this for who knows how long, there might be no chance of him talking to you," Frisk pointed out. She suddenly felt bitter. Alphys was a sweetheart, how dare he make her cry? "Maybe _you_ should talk to _him_."

"But how do I do that? H-he won't l-l-listen to me..."

"He's your best friend, right?"

"Yeah."

"He'll listen. Just use brute force. He won't see it coming. That's how I get my sister to talk." Then Frisk gasped. "My sister!"

She felt a thick knot of loss form in her stomach at the thought of her sibling and didn't understand why. All she knew was that something was happening, probably to Charlotte, and she needed to find her.

She popped up like a cork, wobbly on her feet, all thoughts on Alphys and Gaster gone. "M-my sister," she stammered, "she was there, she was _right_ _there_ and I-I don't-I _can't_ -I-" Frisk took a deep breath through her nose, and raised her hands. ***I have a sister, I can't find her, and I can't remember what happened to me before I woke up.**

"S-sister?" asked Alphys, still recovering from her crying. "O-oh no...th-that's gonna be a problem..."

"What? Why?"

"We're in the United States."

—

Today should be a good day.

 _Should_ being the operative word.

Alphys was torn between feeling angry at Gaster, sad for him, frustrated, and then upset for the human who was now softly crying for her sibling. All in all, so far, today was shitty, and that's not even factoring Frisk's reaction to the other monsters, they're reaction to her, registering her and then getting her inside her tank, and completing the stack of paperwork for possible partners for Frisk right after that...

Alphys didn't feel like thinking right now. There was someone who was better, way better at these kind of things than Alphys was, and she desperately wished that she was here.

"But-but I thought-you guys aren't at Ebbot?"

Alphys turned to Frisk, was curled in on herself, her little arms wrapped around her knees and pulled against her chest.

She looked so defenseless.

That was another thing on the list of things Alphys will never understand about humans and never will. They always allowed themselves to fall into vulnerable positions whenever they were upset or sad or angry, and they weren't even as fragile as monsters were. Monsters literally wore their SOULs on their sleeves, since their bodies are just projections of their SOULs, but humans have all that flesh and blood to keep their SOUL safe. They can take several hits and get back up again without turning into dust.

And then, even with the reveal of SOULs and how fragile they are, how much trust it takes to show it to someone—Alphys couldn't believe when Frisk wanted to see her SOUL and just said yes on the spot. Even if she didn't know, it was still a shock. And Gaster, that _stupid_ _skeleton_ , he didn't listen to her, and now he was probably off in his office thinking about his human friend and avoiding her, as usual.

He makes her so mad she just wants to...hit something! Flip a table! Throw her phone against the wall!

Humans aren't infallible, but they are strong when it comes to monsters. They know that now so...why do they keep holding themselves as vulnerable?

Alphys didn't get it.

"W-well, we were, but tensions got high with the government, so the US offered us a place in Nevada...didn't you know? Or did they never tell you?"

"There's a ton of things about monsters I don't know," Frisk spat, "and a bunch of shit that people don't tell me, and I-I- _I-_ "

Frisk's body trembled, and the already small girl curled in tighter on herself, suddenly wracked with tears. Alphys really didn't know what to do. Calling someone on the phone would seem insensitive and suspicious, leaving the room would be even worse; Alphys didn't even want to _think_ about what would happen if she escaped somehow, and trying to make her feel better was pointless. She always made things worse, she knew that. She was a clumsy scientist with a crying human on her hands and her best friend near wasting away, and she couldn't feel anymore useless.

"I-I can't go back to Brazil a-and my sister's m-missing, but I don't know how or _why_ , " she muttered sullenly into her knees. The little sounds of Frisk's crying just made Alphys uncomfortable, so she asked Frisk if she could leave for a moment to go find Gaster.

"Go get 'im," Frisk mumbled before Alphys left, raising a thumb while still keeping her head tucked into her knees.

"Uh...will do." And with that she was out the door.

The rest of the monsters were working with their human partners, but she could still see the side-eyes and the hushed whispers wherever she walked around. It made her tail flick in agitation.

The lab had to be one of the most intricate buildings in New Ebbot. Attached to the ceiling were several horizontal long tubes, Alley Canisters, often dropping into a narrow tank with several smaller tubes protruding from the tank and into the main tubing system.

The Alley Canisters both served as a pathway for the experiments and a means to exercise the humans. Every day, 'round the afternoon, the humans would be released from their tanks and into the Alley Canisters, swimming through the designated path set for them to day before, and when completed, they'd return to their respective tanks.

Gaster liked to call them the Blaster Examinators. Made up of tempered glass and reinforced with magic, each one had a thick wire that ran from the casing of the Examinator to the control panel at the heart of the lab, which enabled anyone to see their subject's heart rate, scan their soul's desires, emotions, weakness, other human innate processes, or to change the temperature of the water.

Just above the rim of the casing was the subject's name, which also functioned as a perforation to slip food through without anything else escaping the Examinator.

But the best part? The water had come from Waterfall, and it made everything so ethereal, and humans could breathe in it, too! It was a ton of work on their part, when adding the water, but once it was all put together Gaster and Alphys couldn't deny that they'd done a good job.

"Hey, Alph?" came a familiar voice, and Alphys sighed in relief when she was met with Amaryllis. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," dismissed Alphys. Amari gave her a nonplussed look, which quickly shifted to one of anger and fear.

"The human...she didn't hurt you, did she? You're lookin' all puffy-eyed."

Alphys didn’t want to tell her it was more like the other way around. "No, Amari, no, it's just...Gaster being Gaster."

Amari scoffed. "Again? What is it with this guy? Why is he-wait. Is he the reason why you're crying?"

She took Alphys' silence as an answer and balled up her fists. "Hey," Alphys reassured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I got this. I'm gonna go talk to him, alright? You just go back and keep on doing what you're doing."

"You sure? You know he's never listened before."

Alphys gave her a shaky smile. "I have a feeling that'll change."

—

The best things about children were how much they wanted to learn.

They’d always ask why things were happening instead of what. Why surface weather is so unpredictable, why lightning strikes are so loud, and why there were so many different kinds of flowers on the surface. They just wanted to get a grasp of how things worked, were curious and inquisitive, and most of all, sweet. She had dreamed of running a kindergarten in the Underground, and now that monsters’ve reached the surface, she's turned her home into a little school and couldn't be any happier.

Toriel smiled before gently closing her front door. It was early in the morning, and the first of many children had already arrived. The little armless child stepped into the common room, taking a moment to run over to the cubbies, trip, stand back up, and kick off their boots next to their respective cubby.

The doorbell rang again, and before Toriel could even get the door opened fully, she was tackled by a giggling blur of orange.

"MISS TORIEL! IT'S SO NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" exclaimed Papyrus jovially. He had his arms flung around her neck and his legs wrapped around her waist, and as was routine, Toriel twirled him around twice. She heard a familiar chuckle before it was gone.

"You see me every day, Papyrus," she reminded him, chuckling herself at his antics. "Your brother, is he here?"

"No! I told him to leave early because he has an important test to study for! And I want him to get a perfect score!"

"Right," said Toriel, gently placing the skeleton on the floor. "We wouldn't want him to fail now, would we?"

Papyrus scrunched up his face. "No!"

"That's the spirit!" Toriel cheered, and walked with Papyrus to the rest of the house. He stopped at the cubby station, depositing his red boots and yellow backpack into it.

"Yo, 'pyrus!" exclaimed one of the children. Monster Kid, or M.K, as they preferred to be called, skipped on over to an awaiting Papyrus and happily nudged their head against his in lieu of a greeting. "Come lookit this!"

"Oh! Good morning, M.K! Is there something wrong?"

"Nah, 'pyrus, I just wanted you to see this new arts and crafts easel Miss Toriel got for us! She said we can paint pictures and stuff, just as long as we're careful."

Papyrus' eyes widened. "Really? That sounds awesome! Oh, I can paint Sans a picture for when he aces that test!"

"Test?"

Papyrus nodded seriously. "Yes, M.K. Sans wants to work with Doctor Gaster in his Lab, and I think it's a fantastic idea! I'm going to help him by not being in his way!!"

"Woah...that sounds so cool! Is he gonna work with all the big chemicals? Get a lab coat? Or-" M.K had stars in their eyes "-what if he makes something _explode_?"

"That sounds completely reckless and life endangering!"

"But?"

"But yes, I suppose it's pretty cool...Oh!"

The phone a top the cubby drawer began to rattle. Miss Toriel wasn’t nearby, probably checking on the younger kids, maybe he could answer for her? He did want to help her out, after all. He reached on the tip of his toes and grabbed the receiver, pulling it down to him.

"Hello." That's a voice Papyrus never heard of before. It's kind of deep. And really smooth. It reminded him of his brother. "Is this the Hoepfull residence?"

"No, this is Papyrus!"

There's the slight bristle of static, and then the voice said, "Ah, of course. I forgot about her little kindergarten. Well, Papyrus, do you think you could get Toriel on the phone for me?"

"Alrighty!" Papyrus covered the mouthpiece with his hand.

"Who is it?" asked M.K.

"I dunno, but they wanna talk to Toriel. Miss Toriel? Miss Toriel! There's someone on the phone for you!"

Said boss monster poked her head from around the corner and reached for the phone, balancing a small snow drake on her hip.

"Thank you, Papyrus. Hello? Oh, Gaster, hi, is something the matter?"

Gaster? That was Gaster? And Toriel knew Gaster? It made Papyrus' head spin. Gaster was one of the most intimidating scientist that Papyrus considered himself fortunate not to meet, and now he finds out that his kindergarten teacher is friends with him?

Toriel is a sweet monster. He knew she wouldn't do anything brash, but either way, he didn't know how to feel about that. Then again, Gaster really hadn’t seemed all too mean on the phone. He just sounded really tired. And his end was sort of staticky.

But what he said nearly made her drop the phone. Now Papyrus was worried.

"Oh my goodness-they are? She is? Oh, of course. I'll see if I can make it!"

She hung up, and then gently placed the snowdrake on the ground, where they headed off to their friends. There were only a couple of children so far, and if she were quick, she could get to the Labs and back before the rest of them arrived.

"Is something wrong?" inquired Papyrus. Toriel reached over and patted down his skull.

"It's nothing, Papyrus, I just need to go and visit someone. I'll call Gerson to watch over you for a while. Will that be alright?"

"Uh...yeah! Of course!" he insisted, forcing the apprehension down his throat. "Sure."

—

Someone unlocked his door.

Honestly, he wasn't very surprised. This wasn't the first time he'd succumbed to his grief, so he knew that it was coming eventually. His face shifted into a frown as he turned around.

He _was_ surprised, however when he was met with Alphys.

"Can I help you?"

She was glaring at him as she walked-no, stomped over to him and then _kicked his leg_. It's so out of her usual range of normalcy that he let out a squawk.

"What the fuck, Alph?"

"What the fuck is with _you_?" she hissed, and her voice cracked. Her eyes looked puffy, and she was balling her fists. Gaster scowled. As pathetic and childish it was, he wanted to be left alone. Couldn't she just see that?

"We both knew it would be too much for you but you went ahead and brought her SOUL out anyways and then-and then you just left like the stars themselves told you to. What the _hell_ , Gaster?"

He sighed. "If you came here to be problematic then you can just leave."

"Just-wha- _problematic_?" She sputtered, taking a step back. He could see the hurt just behind her eyes, just before it flared. "Gaster, you dummy, do you honestly think I broke into your office because I wanted to _insult_ you?"

"It certainly seems as such."

"Gaster this _isn't_ _healthy_. You k- _know_ how dangerous this is! Every time this happens your form starts to destabilize, but then you go on and act like you're fine even though you _aren't_."

"Don't you think I know that already?" he snapped, glaring right back at her. She almost faltered, but mirrored his look. "I don't want to remember them. I don't want to think about them. I'll admit that summoning forth her SOUL was an awful idea, but just the fleeting thought of them makes me unstable."

"That's what I'm trying to get at! You need someone to help you!" she insisted. "The last time this happened—”

"The last time this happened, I almost died, Alphys." He surprised himself by how calm he was. Wasn't he just angry with her a moment ago? "You were so worried. You barely slept a wink for three days. Do you think I want that to happen to you again?"

That hadn't been one of his finer episodes. It was about a year ago, back when they were working on the Labs, when a particular memory decided to torment him. The child he had befriended loved working with tools, specifically the sharper ones.

He had been reaching for one of the screwdrivers when he felt himself give out. Alphys wasn't unfamiliar with the occurrences, but that didn't stop her from screaming and running over to him. She had half-carried half-helped him to his office, and had to oversee the production until he recovered, and _thank the stars_  he did. Alph was running herself ragged and raw, spending days approving blue prints and nights checking up on him. She had bags under her eyes, a thermos of coffee constantly in her hand, and had an extra layer of jitters along with her usual anxiety, which had peaked.

Because of _him_.

Needless to say, he had to make sure she didn't witness anything else after that.

"I don't want you to worry about things like this anymore," he said suddenly when she remained silent. "I can't."

She gazed up at him, her breaths turning into sniffles, which soon turn into tears and she's crying, covering her face in her hands and bawling into them. In a bout of panic, Gaster closed the distance between them and pulled her close, kneeling to give her a fierce hug.

"I-just-I…I _know_  you d-don't want me to w-worry, but that's what friends _do_ ," she blubbered into his collarbone, her arms flung around his shoulders. "I-I'm just- _I'm scared that I'll lose you_ and I won't even know _when_ and I don't k-know what I’d _do_ if I l-lost you _-_ "

He felt like an idiot.

"-and I just don't w-want you to go through this by y-yourself."

Scratch that, he was an idiot. A huge fucking dummy. He didn't realize he was making her so upset by trying to shield her from all of his problems. And his theory is confirmed, she was crying because of him. Something else that he caused because of his foolishness.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, holding the shaking monster in his arms. She nodded once, and then pulled away long enough to look him in the eyes.

"P-please promise me that you won't do this on your own anymore. Promise me."

They both know promises aren't something he takes lightly, but she wouldn't drop the subject until he did, and they both knew that.

"I promise," he said, and she ducked back into his embrace. She didn't frown at him, didn't follow, she just nodded, and hugged him back.

Today was surprising for both of them. They found the human with the SOUL trait they were after, so it really _should've_ been a good day. But he got to understand his lab partner and best friend, so maybe after all that, surprising was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They'll try harder to understand each other from now on.
> 
> Alrighty, so Momo made the backgrounds for Faithtale right? [Here they are!](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160625970349/momoishy-faithtale-backgrounds-1%C2%BA-labthe) And [here](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/161176818489/faithtale-characters-design-sans-and-frisk) are the refs for Frisk and Sans, [and everyone else.](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160914704314/faithtale-character-tryed-to-paint-it-but-it)


	3. The Icing on the Tip of the Iceberg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well, no one's ever really seen him around before," he mumbled, shrinking into his sweater. "And he never really talks to anyone? I dunno." He took a bowl of haphazardly chopped onions, stepped on the stool to get a better reach, and poured it into the pot. "It's just...I heard him on the phone. He sounded so weird. Every time I hear about that guy, I get the feeling that I'm not gonna have a good time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry I've been gone! Here's a longer chapter to make up for my absence. I just got new glasses and it's taking a while to adjust, but I'll be fine. 
> 
> But yeah. [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/tagged/comic) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!

The United States was pegged for being one of the worst and the best countries in the world. It was a gas-guzzling, food-wasting, desperate photogenic that plastered their ideals where they saw fit. But it was one of the countries that had the best chances for opportunity, for school, a steady income, a family...it was everything everyone wanted back home and everything they hated.

And now Frisk was here.

Frisk was a dreamer. When she dreamed of going to America and seeing the statue of liberty, she imagined she'd be there with her family. Her mother and her sister by her side. They'd be worn-out and exhausted but it would be so worth it.

But now she's here, all alone. No sister to make her laugh, no mom to brush her tears away and kiss her forehead and make her feel better.

And she didn't even know what happened to them because her _stupid fucking memory._

She'd lost everything in one day. Her family, her home, part of her memory, and now she was living with monsters as some crazy magical science experiment. It was the type of things you'd read in books, but Frisk has lived her life. She's read all the books, and she's dreamed as much as she wanted to. Magical things like this weren't supposed to happen to ordinary people like her.

And yet.

She hung her head and cried into her knees.

* * *

At first, Toriel couldn't believe it.

So this is what Gaster and Alphys have been getting up to? This lab was big and intricate, large tubes filled with Waterfall's waters. It was a strange thing to see, humans swimming in the tubes and talking amicably to their monster partners, but Toriel was glad to see that they have kept the peace.

She walked along the walls of the lab, needing someone to direct her to Gaster but wishing not to be a bother in their work. A familiar purple bunny monster noticed her from the corner of their eye and said something to their human before walking over to her.

"'Sup, Tori," she said as she approached, and then flashed a wicked grin and a curtsy. "Or should I say, _Your Majesty_?"

"Amaryllis."

"Queen Toriel?"

"Amyrill."

Her eyebrows waggled. "Lady Asgore?"

Tori chuffed, and then began to giggle into her paw. Oh these monsters and her friendship with the king. He was just so nice to talk to! And they had common interests! Who wouldn't be friends with the big ol' fluffybun?

" _Lady Asgore_ -snrk-sweet stars above, Amaryllis. I'm just here for Gaster! Is he around?"

Her expression darkened visibly at the mention of him, and she clenched her fists, muttering under her breath. Toriel was just about to ask for clarification when she spoke up. "Colossal asshole," she swore. Toriel raised an eyebrow wordlessly, and Amaryllis sighed. "The dude made Alph cry."

"Wh-why? How? Is everything alright, what happened?" Alphys is one of the sweetest monsters Toriel had the pleasure of knowing. How could something like this occur? "Did he say something to her?"

The bunny monster scoffed. "Wish I could tell you. She couldn't even tell me, told me she had this one figured out. Headed over to Gaster's and hasn't come out since. Knowing them, they're probably makin' up."

Toriel nodded. Gaster and Alphys were never the type to hold grudges for long. They were good friends that way. Speaking of Gaster, she should probably hurry up find them before they do leave his office and then she'd never find them. As much as she commends them on the hard work they've done, she still needed to get back home and take care of the children. Especially before Gerson could burn the place down.

Well, not him, per se, just his granddaughter. She was a flippant spitfire that had a soft spot for all the children Tori taught, especially for Papyrus, and established a good friendship with the kids. But no matter how much Toriel loved having Undyne over, she just hoped she wouldn't rally Papyrus into making spaghetti again. She was still finding sauce in the cupboards.

She was about to head over to his office when Amaryllis donned a mischievous smirk. "Or, heh, maybe makin' _out_ , 'cuz y'know—"

" _AMARYILLIS_."

* * *

Alphys took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down. She squeezed her arms around his shoulders. He smelled like a fireplace. Gaster's hand was rubbing circles into her back, and she concentrated on the slow movements.

She couldn't believe it.

She hadn't expected it to be _so_ _easy_.

But now she was hugging him, and he was profusely apologizing in her ear.

"I-I'm okay," she sniffed. "It's alright." She felt him give her one last squeeze, and then slowly broke off the embrace, standing to his full height. His little eye lights never left her face. She gave him a shaky smile and wiped her eyes. Wow, her face was a mess. Who knew complicated emotions could do that do you?

"You sure?" he asked, holding both of her hands in his own. They were always warm, and right now Alphys appreciated the comfort the heat gave.

"I-I'm sure," she supplied, and Gaster sighed.

"I can't believe I let things get this far," he murmured. "I shouldn't've kept this from you."

"B-but I understand why you did it," she protested softly. "It it sounds like something I'd do, too.."

"I know..."

Dammit, this was getting too upsetting. She hated seeing him like this, almost more than when he was destabilizing. She needed to fix this.

"But hey, if this happens again, you can, uhm, hit me up so you aren't feeling too _bonely_ next time." She cringed. She was never good with puns, but his face lit up immediately, and he gained those little stars in his sockets that she loved so much.

" _You_ ," he breathed, grinning widely.

"Me," she replied, a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

"You just. You just punned. I can't believe it. I'm so proud." He let go of her hands to wipe a false tear from his socket. "I thought you hated them?"

"I only did it for you," she pointed out, and Gaster laughed.

"Suuuuuure, Alph. Sure. I'll hold you to that."

She grumbled, but gave him a good-natured smile. It was nice to get past the conflicts and just enjoy each other's presence. She hated crying; it was the last thing she ever wanted to do, and she was glad that Gaster understood her enough to drop the subject.

Besides, they had a human to register and a new counterpart for her to work with to find. Hugging onto each other can wait. Speaking of which...didn't Alph leave her while she was crying?

_Holy fucking shit._

"F-frisk!" she squeaked. Gaster quirked his nonexistent eyebrow.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well-sort of-yeah okay, something's wrong, I kinda left Frisk in there when I went looking for you and she was crying to and I didn't knowwhattodosoIjustleft-"

Holy crud. Holy crap. She just left Frisk in there while she was upset with no regard for her feelings because she was too focused on Gaster but that's so excuse so she needs to go back in there and apologize _right now_ —

"Alph, calm down!" Gaster insisted, firmly placing two hands on her shoulders. "What're you talking about?"

Before she could open her mouth, there was a quick knock and a giggle at the door. Wordlessly, they both turned their heads to the door when it burst open.

"ALPHYS! GASTER! I'm respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my dominance as your coworker and best friend by coming in any way!" Amaryllis grinned widely. "'N by the looks of it, just in time, too!"

Amyrill noticed the nonplussed looks on their faces and laughed. "Oh, you guys, don't be so upset, the Queen came over for a visit!"

The Queen? "Oh, Tori's here?" Gaster asked, removing his hands from Alph's shoulders, and she snorted. _The Queen_ was just a nickname they gave to Toriel because of her close friendship with King Fluffybuns. Honestly those two should just get together already.

The goat monster groaned as she walked in. "You're all insufferable."

"You love it though."

Alphys noticed that she was still wearing an apron and smelled faintly like flour. Was she in a rush? She faintly recalled Tori running a home school, and it was still fairly early in the morning...

"Gaster, you called for me?" inquired Toriel, and surprising Alphys for the umpteenth time. "Something about the human from before? How is she?"

Gaster visibly straightened. "Ah, yes, well, we're afraid the situation has become...much more difficult than we thought." What? What was going on? Something was definitely off if Gaster hadn't told her yet.

Amari quirked a brow, a huge difference from how she was snickering like a schoolgirl before. "How so?"

"Well, the human's SOUL trait is Determination." The bunny monster's jaw dropped, but then morphed into a bewildered expression. "And while this would be a breakthrough in our research, I noticed something was...off about her SOUL. "

"Off?" Alphys furrowed her brows. Was that another reason he destabilized? "The only thing that's off is that she has amnesia. Either the humans h-hit her too hard, or something must've happened for her brain to discontinue recording in c-conscious memory."

"That exactly what I'm talking about," he pressed. "While _she_ doesn't remember anything, -"

"What's the problem?" Toriel interjected.

"Her SOUL does."

* * *

Toriel slipped out of the room just as Amari, Gaster, and Alphys erupted into a lengthy conversation involving SOUL frequencies, theories, colors and wavelengths, along with a sprinkle of speculations on the human nervous system here and there. While she was all for learning about the sciences, they were forgetting that the girl they were harboring was not some mindless _pig_. She was person with valid feelings and emotions that should be addressed just anyone else's.

But that didn't mean she wasn't as surprised as the rest of them.

Also, a little confused.

While she, and a small circle of people outside of the lab did know about Gaster's search for the Determined SOUL, they never really knew why, save for Asgore, but whenever she'd try to talk to him, he'd gently explain that it was something he couldn't discuss. Not even with her. While she understands that, it still makes a tiny part of her miffed. They've been friends for so long. He couldn't trust her enough to keep a secret?

No matter. His refusal on telling her only made her want to learn more. Why was the human so significant? Why was Determination so vital?

And why was it so important that no one could talk to her about it?

It makes her just a tad more put off whenever she thinks about it. She was fine when they started building the labs, alright about keeping silent about the human trading system, and in agreement with the research put forth to the humans in captivity, but the second she asks why they're all doing this they all clam up and avoid the topic?

Even though Toriel believed she deserved a right to understand what was going on, there was still someone in need of a hug. She asked one of the passerby where the human was being kept, and the jerked a finger at Alphys' office.

Toriel gave them a firm nod, headed to the office door, and then gently opened it.

The human was on the left side of the room, perched on a mattress, and softly crying into her knees. She heard Toriel opened the door and perked up, sniffling and wiping her nose.

She was curled into herself so tightly Toriel was sure she could hold her like a ball in her hands and still have room for more. She wiped her eyes and then froze, her gaze darting over Toriel's face.

Now that she had the human's attention, with her warm brown eyes staring at her, she didn't know how to feel about this. On one hand, humans have been nothing but rude and intolerable since they resurfaced, and quite a few of the human trades, if not all, have tried to fight their way out of the situation, but the girl was doubled over with her face buried into her knees as she continued to cry, like she hadn't noticed Toriel's presence at all.

A large portion of her pangs at that. How much hope had the poor girl lost?

"Hello?" she asked softly. The human sniffled again, and glanced up at her. Toriel gave her a warm smile.

"My name is Toriel. And you?"

* * *

Okay.

Either Gaster and Alphys made up or Alph was whooping his ass(?), because she had no idea who the monster in front of her was. She was a new type of monster—it occurred to Frisk that Monsters were a species all together but there were different types. She made sure to look for any similarities if she got out of this room. But either way, she appeared to be some sort of goat monster, sporting white horns, floppy ears, and fur that looked soft, even from Frisk's viewpoint. The dress she was wearing had some sort of insignia embroidered onto it.

"My name is Toriel," she said, giving Frisk a smile. "And you?"

Her voice was really soft, too. Everything about her just screamed soft. And it was nice of her to decide to be slow with this introduction and not just have her wake up out of the blue with no prior recollection as to how the hell she got there in the first place. Very accommodating, that.

Frisk took a watery gulp of air, and then raised her hands. She really didn't feel like talking, and her voice was always hoarse after a long cry.

Which was why signing came in handy. Why couldn't everyone else see that it was easier to talk when you aren't actually talking?

 ***Call me Frisk.** Toriel's eyes widened, and Frisk briefly wondered if she did something wrong before she raised her own hands with a grin.

_*You have a lovely name._

Frisk sputtered, and then coughed, nodding when Toriel reached over for silent confirmation to pat her back. She slowed down as the coughs began to subside, and Frisk brought her hands into a flurry of motions. ***You know how to sign?**

Wait a minute.

_Wait one hot minute._

Didn't both Gaster and Alphys understand her when she was signing? How did she not give any notice to that? She was so unused to having anyone being able to know ASL that it should've registered with her! Maybe the need for answers overweighed the shock of their communication skills?

But still, though. How the hell did everyone she'd met know how to sign?

***Wait-what-you know how to sign?!**

Toriel laughed, lilting and airy, before she replied. _*Yes_.

"H-how?!" At this, Toriel raised her brows in shock.

"Sorry," she rectified. "I wasn't aware that you could speak."

"N-no, it's okay," replied Frisk. "But-" she coughed "-how come every monster I've met can sign?"

"Well, we have a monster that can't speak, so we all made sure to learn sign language in order to communicate with him."

"Really?" She had no idea how things would've ended up if they didn't understand her without talking. "I'll have to thank him."

Toriel smiled. "There's no need, my dear, but..." she trailed off hesitantly, "I noticed you were upset before."

Oh, right.

Frisk sighed. She really didn't want to talk about it, but she had the feeling that Toriel wouldn't leave until she did, so she proffered her hands. ***I lost my sister.**

Toriel gasped softly, and moved to sit next to Frisk. She let her. She breathed in the scent of flour and something sweet. Now that she was closer, Frisk noticed the warmth rolling off of Toriel in waves, like lying on the ground in a light patch of sunlight, or similar to how she felt with her SOUL out in the open.

"You lost your sister?"

Being familiar with the sudden prick in her corner of her eyes didn't coerce her into wanting it, but she nodded wordlessly. ***I don't remember how.**

"Well, then how do you know if you've truly lost her?"

***Something tells me...it just feels like it, you know?**

She sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I..." Toriel hesitated, making Frisk all the more curious. "I lost someone too," the goat woman admitted, her eyes settling for the hands folded in her lap. "When I was not much older than you."

From what Frisk had seen, known, and been told, she never really gave any consideration to the monsters' families, or even if she could have any, so this initially surprised her.

"Did you have a sister?" she couldn't help but ask, and Toriel shook her head tightly.

"No. My mother."

The shock and concern must've been showing on Frisk's face, for Toriel hurried to say, "No, no, it's alright, my child. I remember so little, but...I was so little, when it happened."

"But-but how?" If they were known for anything, Monsters were well renowned for their magic, and that they spent almost a thousand years underground, near an active magma system. And that they built their homes and they thrived there. With all that, it's difficult to believe that a monster could die. When Frisk saw Gaster and Alphys for the first time, she couldn't imagine them dying, Gaster specifically, the way he held himself up. It just didn't make any sense.

"The first few decades weren't exactly peaceful," Toriel murmured. "While there were few who blamed the king for the war, many of us were angry, heartbroken, fearful, and...so tired." She gripped her hands into fists, and Frisk cautiously placed her hand over them, noticing how small she was compared to her. "And we started to lose HoPe for our freedom, and when a Monster loses all of their HoPe, they turn to dust."

She didn't have to say anything else for Frisk to understand, but kept going. "We lost so many monsters in those first few years. It wasn't common to lose a loved one unexpectedly, and when monsters died their relatives took it in the hardest way they could. It was like a domino effect...and when I came home from school one night, I found my mother, spread across her bedroom floor."

And just like that, Frisk realized Monsters weren't as infallible as she made them out to be. They could all die so easily. "Just like that?" she asked, and her voice broke. She couldn't imagine losing her mother like that, watching her turn to dust or coming home to see her spread over the floor like a tapestry, nor could she think of losing her sister so easily, but-

-something inside her told her she already had.

With that she began to sniffle, Toriel's word's sinking in with her lack of memory creating a sense of finality, as she once again, began to cry.

"Oh, goodness, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you...here." Toriel gently reached for Frisk, and wow she was way softer than she thought, Frisk felt like she was actually sinking into the downy fur. She embraced Frisk in a hug, and Frisk selfishly took what comfort she could get as she cried into her shoulder, Toriel's paw warm on her back.

"I'm sorry," she blubbered uselessly. "I n-never thought about Monsters and their families and I never really wondered about how you guys lived under there...but I guess I understand a little better now." She sniffled. "I could never think of losing my family like th-that."

But she did, didn't she?

She cried harder, fat tears rolling down her cheeks and soaking into Toriel's fur, and that made her feel guilty, which only prompted more sobs out of her. "I just...I miss my mom, and my sister, and I can't find my locket-"

She froze. "M-m-my locket!" she stammered. "I have to find it. I-it has a picture of my sister in it, and-"

"Say no more," Toriel instructed, and then released Frisk from her fluffy hold. "I'll ask Alphys and Gaster where it is. Oh! You must be starving. Can I get you anything?"

"Just some water would be nice." Her throat was killing her. Toriel hmm'd and then was out of the room. Frisk took a breath of air, and then laid back on her mattress.

It was said that crying would only make you feel worse, and yeah, Frisk could see where people meant by that. Her throat was burning, her eyes swollen and aching, and she kept hiccupping as she breathed, but she felt better, too. The tension she'd been holding in was gone. Crying had taken the grief inside her head and gently washed away, at least for a little while, so she could think.

But thinking seemed like way too much right now. She lied on her back, kept breathing, and allowed herself to just be.

* * *

When Toriel barged in on Gaster , Alphys and Amaryllis, she wasn't surprised when they were still pouring over Frisk's condition and arguing over the effects of certain drugs on the human system.

But what did surprise her was how heated they could be while doing it.

"...yeah, I got that, but it's not just in her head," Amari pressed. Her arms were crossed and she leaned against Gaster's desk. "Whether you realize it or not, the human brain is always recording memory of some input, be it conscious or unconscious, and it's her SOUL. It's her _everything_. Of course it would remember, why the hell wouldn't it?"

 "While that's true, we still need to figure out how this will affect her in the long run," said Alphys, pushing up her glasses with one finger. "What if she touches her SOUL and recalls everything? If the human brain stops recording in conscious memory, it's doing that to _protect_ _you_. SOULs don't exactly offer that kind of protection, and I don't want to be the one responsible for her breaking down."

"So, what, we're gonna build a wall around her SOUL? She's going to find out someday--"

"--Well of course she will, but you can't just tell someone their sister was killed--"

"Enough," Gaster insisted, and both parties immediately quieted. "You both have convincing arguments, but we need to realize what's causing the blockage first. Alphys?"

 The scientist took a deep breath, and said, "She believes she lost her sister, but doesn't remember how, or why, and...before the trade was finished, one of the goons told me that they r--Tori?"

The goat monster chuckled sheepishly. "My apologies, the human--Frisk, was asking for some water and her locket? I was just asking since I assume you know where it is."

"Oh? Oh!" Alphys reached into her pocket and pulled out a fine golden chain with an equally matching golden locket, and handed it over to Toriel. "Sorry 'bout that...I guess she'll want the rest of her clothes, huh?"

Toriel shrugged. "I suppose, but she never asked. She just wanted this. Oh, and a cup of water? Honestly, you need to take care of your humans better."

"Yeah, yeah, your Highness, we gotcha. Lemme go an' get her somethin' to drink," Amaryllis drawled before leaving the room, the rest of the gang on her tail. Alphys and Gaster lagged behind, close enough for Tori to hear her murmuring quietly to him on the way, and he didn't reply, only nodding wordlessly.

Toriel briefly wondered what they were talking about, and why they were keeping it so secret.

* * *

When everyone walked back inside her room, led by a bunny monster Frisk hadn't seen before, she had to admit she was still suspicious about Gaster, but they were in the middle of a conversation and Alphys patted his hand. So far, they seemed alright.

For now.

But Frisk broke into a smile when Toriel gently passed over the fine chain. Hurriedly, with clumsy fingers she opened it up and almost sighed in relief when she saw her sister's surprised chocolate-covered face.

And then she felt the panic, so sudden and quick that it stunned her, and so hard it hurt. Her gut was wrenching, churning, coiling, a HUGE difference compared to the near-searing she'd get just above her heart. Now it felt like something was constricting around her and she wanted it gone.

She snapped the locket closed almost as quickly as she opened it and took a deep breath, recognizing the looks of concern that flashed across Toriel and the bunny monster's face. Said monster gently handed her a cup of water, and Frisk downed it quickly, sighing as she felt her throat quell.

"Are you alright, Frisk?" asked Toriel worriedly. Frisk turned to her.

"Yeah," she was all too quick to lie, her eyes still puffy and her voice only slightly hoarse. "I'm fine."

* * *

Whenever Undyne gets to visit Papyrus at school she only offers a grin, but you could see the anticipation boiling behind her eyes. She plays it off and acts totally bored on the way there, but when they see each other it's a nuclear reaction.

"Undyyyne!"

"Papyyy!"

The fish monster grinned widely when she saw the smaller skeleton, and in the middle of a throng of other kids launching herself at full speed, threw her arms around him, so hard that he skidded across the floor just to catch her. She twirled him around, laughing in tandem with him.

"I MISSED YOU!" he spouted when she put him down. "IT JUST WASN'T THE SAME WITHOUT YOU HERE!"

"Yo, 'Dyne! Nice to see you!" M.K grinned. A snowdrake made their way to the room and smiled at her.

She just loved being at Tori's place. Sure, the kids were loud and noisy and almost had no sense of equilibrium in their behavior, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. It was a nice break from staying at home most of the time. Plus, whenever Gerson got them to gather around in the common room to tell them stories from before the war, they'd flock over to him faster than you could say 'butterscotch-cinnamon pie'.

And whenever Undyne's around, she nabs him during naptime to go make spaghetti. But it was a surprise that Toriel hadn't come back yet. Where in the world was she?

At two o'clock, during their stationed 'nap time', she snuck inside the children's room and didn't even half to tell him to get up. His grin could light up the whole kitchen.

It was like clockwork, when she cooked. Her grandfather couldn't exactly do everything in his old age, and Undyne didn't mind helping him around the house. Besides, she was proud to see her improvement as the weeks passed, and was always careful with the kitchen utensils. She made sure Papyrus washed his hands and stood behind him, slowly and carefully guiding him on how to slice tomatoes correctly. His brother would kill her if he saw this.

The thought almost made her mood sour. Sans was so lucky he got to spend all his time around Paps. She would love the opportunity, but who'd be there for Gerson? She doesn't want anyone else caring for him, it made her snarl just thinking about it. But at the same time, Paps is her best friend. She didn't know where she'd be without him.

"Do you think she'll have everything?" Papyrus asked as they looted the pantry. Undyne scoffed.

"This is Tori we're talkin' about, Paps. She has everything." She held up a plastic bottle. "Even raspberry syrup!"

"...Why would she have raspberry syrup?"

"I dunno. Just in case?"

"In case of what?" he asked, and they glanced at each other before erupting into boisterous laughter. They continued finding odd staples in the food closet that may or may not've included yuzu hot sauce, rice wine vinegar, pickled ginger, and siracha, whatever that was.

But...something was wrong.

She was in the middle of stepping on a stool to place the pot on the lighter when she noticed his mood. Quiet, withdrawn, less enthusiastic as usual. She didn't even see a sequin shaker in sight.

Something didn't _bode_.

"Hey Pap?"

He was opening a box of pasta when he looked up at her. "Hmm?"

"You okay?"

He puffed up his chest like the answer was obvious. And maybe it was. Maybe she was just overreacting. "The Great Papyrus is never down! Never!! Why on earth would I be?"

Yeah, see? She had nothing to worry about. She should have nothing to worry about, but...the undertones of apprehension in his voice told her otherwise. Gerson always told her it was better for people to talk on their own time, and Pap looked like he wanted her to drop it, so drop it she did.

Well, y'know, for now.

"Okay," Undyne said simply, and Papyrus relaxed. "Could you pass me the oregano?"

He grinned and leaped onto the counter, retrieving the shaker and handing it to her.

"Thanks."

Based on her practice over time, Undyne could assume that this batch of spaghetti would be significantly better than her last. No glitter or sequins, the tomatoes were cut, and she made sure to cut off the noodles before they got too soggy. Her actions were still jagged and accented. She darted around the kitchen, helping Paps with the meatballs and cleaning up spills when they occurred. She didn't want a mad Toriel on her hands. No one did.

It was only when the sauce was simmering did he speak up.

"Undyne?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah?" she answered immediately. Maybe if she was quick to answer he wouldn't feel so nervous. They were friends! They shouldn't be dodging around each other like this.

"I..." he started, and then scrunched his ridges of his brows together. "I'm worried."

"'Bout what?"

"Well...do you know who W.D Gaster is?"

She blinked. This was what was giving him trouble? "Y'mean the spooky scary scientist that no one ever sees?"

"Yeah."

"Then yeah, I've heard of him." She stirred the sauce, and added in a little more tomato paste. "Why? What about 'im?"

Pappy fidgeted in place, and _boy_ _howdy_ did Undyne bet something was definitely off. He was way less confident than usual. What happened? "Earlier this morning, Miss Toriel got a phone call from him, and it made her leave. Real fast, too."

"Really now?" It wasn't like Tori to keep secrets. And secret meetings with secret scientists who did secret things? Definitely suspicious. But Tori had her own needs too, the daycare wasn't her only priority. Maybe Gaster just needed some help, that was all.

Undyne was fully convinced that you never really got to know person till you tried on their shoes and walked around in them. Papyrus had taught her that, and honestly, why wouldn't she believe him?

"And she hasn't gotten back yet, so I'm kinda worried. I mean, Gaster is pretty scary."

She sprinkled in some basil. "Why do ya think he's scary?" Paps never met him. How would he know what he was like?

"Well, no one's ever really seen him around before,"  he mumbled, shrinking into his sweater. "And he never really talks to anyone? I dunno." He took a bowl of haphazardly chopped onions, stepped on the stool to get a better reach, and poured it into the pot. "It's just...I heard him on the phone. He sounded so weird. Every time I hear about that guy, I get the feeling that I'm not gonna have a good time."

"So..." a grin played on her lips. "Are you saying you're gonna-"

"-Undyne if you're doing what I think you're doing-"

"-have a _bad_ time?" she finished, and he squawked, shooting her a glare, but was restraining his own laughter.

"You're just as bad as Sans!"

"You're smiling though."

"And I hate it."

She giggled. "No, but dude, how well do you know him? Gaster, I mean."

Papyrus shot her a look of frustration. "I just told you. No one's ever seen him around that much."

"So you've never talked to 'im before?"

"No."

"Do ya know anything about him other than his first and last name?"

"No!"

She stirred in some parsley. "So how d'ya know if he's as scary as you think he is?"

"I-!" he blinked, and then groaned. "No fair! How come you're always right?"

She couldn't help it: she giggled again, and set the heat low before topping off the pot and bumping hips with him. "It doesn't mean that you're always wrong, Papy. My grandpa always tells me that something weird might be something familiar viewed from a different perspective." She sat down on the stool and patted the spot next to her, satisfied when he complied. "And that's not scary, right?"

He sighed loudly. "I guess."

"Yeah, and what if he's not a people's person?"

"I know, but I can't help it," he insisted. "It's just a feeling in my gut, or, er, my bones, and I just. I don't like it."

Undyne nodded. "I get that, you dork. But don't be too quick to judge somebody you don't know yet, okay? Remember what you taught me?"

"Anyone can be a good person if they just try," he mumbled.

"Exactly!" she chirped. He was still looking at the floor though. Gotta fix that. "'Sides, isn't your broseph is gonna go work for him?"

He perked up at the mention. "Yeah!! There's this big test he has to take and he's been studying for a long time now! I don't doubt he'll pass!"

"So if Sans is gonna work for him, he's gotta be chill, right?"

"Yeah..."

"And if he met you, he'd stop being such a loner, right?"

"Of course!" he crowed. "The Great Papyrus never fails at making conversation! Nyeh-heh-heh!"

He caught her in a hug, and she smiled. Papyrus was really her best friend, and sometimes they just needed reminders on who they were and what they believed in.

And then she realized what he was trying to add into the pasta. She deftly whirled him around and snatched the sequins out of his hands before he could sprinkle them in.

"Nice try."

He groaned, and Undyne leaned in and noogied him, the both of them laughing the entire time. Crisis averted, for now.


	4. Crazy as a Three Dollar Bill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _So surprising that something from a world of dust and debris could make her want to climb in, to see if the light bouncing off the glass would make her skin glow, too._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/tagged/comic) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!

"Name?"

***Call me Frisk.**

"Age?"

***Sixteen.**

"Gender Identification?"

***I'm a girl.**

She came to terms with everything.

Well, she tried to.

As angry and upset as she felt, she had to be logical. She was in a different country surrounded by Monsters who could use magic on her if they so wished. When she thought about it, it should've been terrifying, that they could cause her serious harm at any point in time. The fact that she was still alive was miracle. If they would let her live, that would be enough.

Although, she when thought about it, someone else could hurt her just as easily. A whack to a specific point in her neck could do her in. So could a dog. Hell, so could a determined duck. Humans and animals were no different.

She told that to herself when she needed to calm down.

Toriel was there with her as she was guided out of her room. Her jaw had dropped and her eyes widened as she sucked in a gasp.

Outside of the room was something that was only found in books. The floors were a neutral grey, the tubing above her head smooth and pristine, the tanks they deposited in were so clear she could almost see through them.  But what got her was how bright everything was. She had to shield her eyes when she first walked out. The water was actually _glowing_. And floating in the tanks, swimming inside the tubes were people. _Humans_.

And they didn't look troubled either. Some were actually talking along with the monsters, who had clipboards in their hands but replied with just as much enthusiasm. The purple bunny monster, which she learned was Amaryllis, jogged up to the ground tubing adjacent to the tanks and chatted amicably with a girl who looked no younger than Frisk before pointing over to the group, causing Frisk to waved bemusedly.

The girl blinked, which more like a wink, seeing as her light brown hair was getting everywhere except for her right eye, which was a startling blue.

Frisk tried to ignore how uneasy that made her feel.

"So...what is this place?" she asked. She was leaning on Toriel for support, seeing as her legs were so unused to being idle for so long. Toriel tightened her grip on Frisk's hand ever so softly, and Frisk felt like she was gripping a cloud.

"To everyone here, it's called the Labs," she explained. "The outside knows it as 'The Experiences', however."

Frisk wrinkled her nose. The Experiences? "Why's it called that?"

"Because that's what it is, my dear," Gaster interjected, and Frisk nearly jumped. She forgot he was there, but turned to him nonetheless. "Everything you see and do in this laboratory will be nothing short of an experience. That and Alphys wanted to name it after an anime."

"Yup!" Alphys chirped unabashedly. "Now c'mon, we hafta show you where you'll be staying!"

The group sans Amari directed Frisk to what they called the Heart of the lab, with Frisk's eyes darting around in wonder at everything.

It was all so new, so different. She's used to crowded areas and busy streets and loud noises, but the sounds here are staccato, organized and arranged like it was music. She recognized the click of people's shoes as they walked around, the humming of the machinery that made the air feel _alive_ and the sound of water churning in the tubing, along with the slaps of her bare feet hitting the ground as she walked alongside Toriel. If she chose to look up she would see other humans swimming around in the tubes, in groups of two or three sometimes, all laughing, smiling, like they were unaware that they were imprisoned.

And really, when she got right down to it, there was nothing else to say to try and sugarcoat it. She was stuck here, whether she liked it or not, sister or no.

She gripped Toriel's hand just a smidge tighter.

They got to a system that looked similar to the rest of the tanks but wasn't hollow, completely black, and dotted with buttons and knobs and levers and controls. It made her head spin just thinking about it. A little ways from it sat a tank similar to the others around her, empty except for all the glowing water inside.

How did that work, anyway? Frisk made to ask that when Alph pressed a series of buttons and twisted several knobs. Blue, then red, then green, then red, then purple, then blue, then none.

Frisk couldn't recall why that it seemed to important to her at the time.

"This is called the Blaster Examinator," Alphys stated proudly. "It's designed to track the fluctuations in your SOUL traits and control certain functions like the water pressure, temperature, and flow."

"But it's just water, right? How can it see my soul?" Given that that Gaster and Alphys had explained how delicate, fragile and private they were, and having experienced them first hand, she wasn't sure how she felt with the entirety of her being on full display _on a fucking TV screen_. And how were logistics of this supposed to work anyway? It's just water, right?

"It's from a place called Waterfall, down in the underground," Alph clarified. "That's also the reason you can breathe in it. Long story short, it's magic, and it's synced up to the Heart." Hearing the underground, Frisk perked up exceptionally. She never got to ask about it as much as she would like, and hearing about Toriel's mother (which, surprisingly, made her feel a little better) made her a little curious.

She focused her attention on the tank. The water wasn't stagnant: if she concentrated hard enough she could make out and hear the way the water moved against the glass, like slowly processing waves. Frisk glanced up at the Toriel, wondering to see how she would take such a significant reminder of the underground, but she was staring back at the tank at the water, with a soft smile on her face.

Waterfall. The underground. Where Toriel had lost her mother. Frisk expected herself to be generally put off by the sight of it, but staring at the water didn't make her want to turn tail and run.  When she gazed at it she didn't feel a hint of the world Toriel had described, where you could lose someone in a heartbeat and never know when. So surprising that something from a world of dust and debris could make her want to climb in, to see if the light bouncing off the glass would make her skin glow, too.

And that's pretty much what happened.

Frisk squeaked when she felt her feet lifting off the ground steadily, and then began flailing her arms as soon as she was as high as Gaster. What the hell was going on?

"Relax, Frisk," Gaster instructed. "It's just magic. Calm down."

Yeah, she understood that, but would it kill him to give her a fucking warning first? Frisk watched in growing alarm as she surpassed Toriel (who was glaring daggers at Gaster) and then Gaster's height. She was going to hit the tubes if he continued this far! What was he thinking?

"Gaster, can you- _wait_!"

The world around her blurred as she screamed and was plunged into lukewarm water. Initially, she was terrified because _you don't just pick someone up and dunk them into water like that_. Magic or no, it was still water. But if Gaster hadn't surprised her with that, her natural instincts would've taken over and she would've been holding her breath instead of gasping.

Gasping. And breathing. It's so weird. She felt like she was outside and just floating by Gaster's magic, but there was a familiar pressure the water had, and the muffled sounds made it seem all too recognizable. She didn't know how she was able to breathe (no matter how many times she heard it magic was never going to be a valid answer) and she waved her arms and kicked her legs uselessly, trying to gain her sense of direction.

She squinted, as the feeling of water seeping into her eyes was something to be accustomed to, and wiggled over to the glass, keeping one hand on the smooth surface to keep herself anchored. She noticed the surface of the water reflecting onto her hand when she moved it. The material of her bandages drifted lazily after her, tiny beige banners following the slightest of movements.

She sighed. The water was warmer now, which must mean that someone was working the controls, and her muscles began to relax, just being, just floating, feeling effortlessly ethereal, like the water surrounding her was part of a lucid dream. If she could close her eyes, she could lose herself to feeling of her soul bared to the world. Raw, warm, and irrevocably at peace.

But she fidgeted. She blinked. She made little movements with whatever part of extremity that came to mind whenever she began falling back asleep. She didn't want to forget, not yet. She couldn't.

If she woke up and found herself without her memory again she'd lose her goddamn mind.

Or no, wait, if she did lose her memory she wouldn't remember she had lost it in the first place, would she?

This was so confusing. She just wanted to sleep without repercussion, was that too much to ask for?

She heard something muffled to her, and instantly turned to face her captors. Alphys was saying something but it was obscured by the sound of water and the buffer the glass made.

"What?" she asked involuntarily. Alphys seemed to groan and Toriel raised her paws.

_*You've been under a significant amount of trauma, and you need to sleep._

***I can't!** Frisk signed urgently. ***I don't want to forget.**

 _*Gaster says the chance that your memory fails is incomprehensibly low, because your brain has nothing traumatic to record in its memory, so you'll be fine_ , she promised.

Dunno, being captured by hulking monsters on the other side of the hemisphere in a weird sci-fi lab seemed pretty traumatic if you asked Frisk, but she wasn't in a place to complain as Alphys gave a thumbs-up to whatever Gaster said to her, and then pressed a series of buttons on the Heart. Blue, then purple, then green, then red, and with a sudden unbidden rush of exhaustion, she fell asleep within the depths of her confinement.

* * *

His (rather embarrassing, really) moment of destabilization was something that wouldn't go unnoticed, not for long. He'd been a fool for trying to conceal his episodes, but in the days leading up to Frisk's arrival he had them more and more frequently. There was no warning, it'd be a simple thought, the reminder of how their hair had felt or how their skin had looked in the moments before they whispered their last wish, faded away, before their exuberant personality was lost to nothing but a husk surrounding a SOUL still full and teeming with life--

He put a firm halt on the memory when he felt his form quiver, and instead chose to look at Frisk. She was floating in her Examinator, and he could see the rise and fall of her chest as she slept, the slight tilt of her head and the brown of her hair billowing around her face as she drifted effortlessly in the water. She looked so much more peaceful with her eyes closed, he noted.

It unnerved him how much she looked like them, from her short hair to the surprised looks she'd give him over her shoulder, like she wasn't sure she comprehended what she saw. She was just so expressive, as she had been when she was quick to snap that trinket of hers closed. If he was curious before to understand what had shaken up a Determined SOUL then his interest was definitely piqued when she had chosen to leave it locked up in Alphys' office. But mostly, Frisk annoyed him when she couldn't say the word SOUL correctly. SOUL, not soul! it's the entirety of your being, the least she could do was give it the respect it deserved.

He turned his gaze to Alphys, who was typing into the keyboard of the Heart, humming the theme from the recent anime she'd watched. He could still see the slight swelling in her eyes from before, and his chest clenched almost painfully as he was reminded of his stupidity. Hopefully, if he were cautious, he wouldn't be the one to get her like that again, and smiled fondly as she grinned when the human's SOUL was on display.

Toriel came to stand beside Alphys after placing her paw on the surface of the Examinator one last time. It seemed that she was still upset about his little trick earlier. It couldn't be helped, he supposed. If he had given Frisk a warning she would've held her breath and passed out, which would eventually leave her breathing in the end, but still. One emotional response was enough for one day. Having her cry several times while also thickening the tension between him and Alph was more than draining already, he didn't need her to pass out and then freak over where she was.

"Gas'?" she inquired. He turned to her with a quirk of his bone brow, and she gesticulated to the screen above. While other work stations (he likes to call them Arteries, because they branch out from the Heart. Ha-fucking-ha) have the same controls, they're smaller, and the display screen can only show so much. This one, however, was built to hold the capacity of a Determined SOUL, and he could hear the humming of the machinery from where he stood, as a red cartoony heart faded into view.

It read the menial things they had asked of her, her birthday, her name, gender, sex, all trivial things that they still had to keep in mind, although Gaster never understood how any of the aforementioned topics could hold a major impact on the fluctuations of the traits of a human SOUL. Unless, well, something traumatic revolved around it to give it some significance.

Human SOULs were a rough patch for him, to say the least.

He only knew the science of them, really. They were made from Determination, and then built into a trait that defines a singular person. But where does the trait come from? Why is only Determination a base? And how was it so vital on its own that it could even make itself into a trait too?

Monster SOULs are white, and they can't handle the traits the human SOULS have, which is why you can only see the aura of a Monster's trait in the light that gleams from their SOUL. Love, HoPe and Compassion is what fuels a Monster SOUL. Since that's the case, he wonders if the reason why Monster SOULS can't handle human traits is because the traits don't require any of the three to function?

It certainly seems like a possibility. Humans have already proved (and they constantly do) that their SOULs don't need these things to exist. Only Determination, which would eventually swell into a trait.

It's a lead to the question they had asked long ago, back when they had given him a bit of their own Determination out of worry and concern; what would happen if something without a SOUL gained the will to live?

And just like that, he felt their Determination spark like a match to gasoline, and he was nearly out like a light.

* * *

To say that Alphys was excited was an understatement.

She was exuberant! She was overjoyed! She would finally get to understand how Determined SOULs worked! Sure, she was still no closer to understanding how human SOULs worked in general but she was so ecstatic!

And Gaster was too, given the small smile he'd given her as she gesticulated at the screen with Frisk's SOUL. Toriel seemed indifferent, but that didn't stop her from staring up at the screen in concealed awe and wonder. And if Alph didn't have to focus on what she was doing she would've nodded in understanding. Human SOULs are the one thing Monsters have yet to understand as completely as they do their own SOULs.

Though she wished Frisk would pronounce them correctly. It's one thing to have a SOUL that her own kind can't understand, but it's another to be unable to enunciate it, at least.

"Gaster!"

There was a muffled groan, and the sound of something bubbling, and when Alph turned around she was faced with Gaster kneeling, a hand covering his face as Toriel flitted over his melting form. Oh no, he was-

Destabilizing. _Destabilizing_. Oh, god, oh god, she needed to do something-!

Her body leaped into action before she could say a word, made a grab for Gaster's hand and wrenched it from his face. His eye lights were growing and shrinking in haywire, and his jaw quivered like he was a moment away from crying.

She would be if he didn't get a grip on himself.

"A- _Alph_ -!" he stammered, his voice delving into pitches that she hadn't even heard from him before, one high, one low, and he gasped, squeezing her hands and shaking.

"Gas'? G-Gas'! C'mon, can you hear me?" He gave just the barest of nods. "O-okay, okay, good, just-just c'mere, just focus on my voice, it's okay, it's okay." He continued to look at her, never breaking away his gaze as a bemused Toriel offered his other hand. Alphys took both of his in hers and stared him squarely in the eyes, willing and hoping they would calm down and that he would realize that he wasn't back there with them, he was here, in what they had built together, and that she'd rather give up her special edition Gumi figurine than lose him to his own memories.

But of course, eye contact can only say so much.

She took him in an impromptu hug, one of her hand gently pressing his skull, and he wrapped his arms around her so tightly and trembled so hard she was sure he was going to blow a fuse and erupt like a dormant volcano, in small amounts, and then all at once.

She shot Tori an apologetic glance, and by her look in reply Alphys knew she was in for questioning later. But his breathing slowed and his grip loosened, and she ran her hand over his skull in what she hoped was soothing movements.

He sighed altogether and gave her another squeeze and murmured his thanks before he let go completely, straightening his turtleneck behind his lab coat and giving her a relieved look. Alphys smiled in return, giving his arm a fond pat. She was happy to help, to do something to curb his awful episodes, at least.

* * *

He studied for weeks, pulling flashcard stunts, late nights, keeping his head in between the covers of books while occasionally entertaining his brother's antics, and in that little snippet of time among the various things he had learned that one, humans were _way_ more fragile than they were thousands of years ago, and two, you can't go three going on four days without sleep. The day he dropped off Paps at Tori's he barely had enough energy to 'port back home, let alone actually talk to her. The second he got back home he collapsed into bed, dead asleep.

And now, he was here. Initially, the test wasn't for a couple of weeks, but something apparently happened at The Experiences and today was one of the last test sessions. Who knows how long it'll be before the next one. Leave it to Sans to take the one of the last-minute calls.

He was in a line with a group of other monsters, and they were all filing into a huge building opposite The Experiences. He was seated at a desk, near the window, and an orange rabbit monster that looked like they wanted to be anywhere else right now prattled off a list of instructions, how you weren't allowed to send, photograph or post any of the test material or it would lead to an invalidation of your test and other standardized test jargon bullshit that no one really give heed to.

But he knew what he was here to do, what he worked for, and no anxiety spiking nerve-wracking test was going to stop him from finishing his goal. He received his test, signed his name, and began once the Instructor gave them all further permission.

For the moment, he was filled with determination.

And then he read the first question and it all deflated out of him faster than a whoopee cushion.


	5. At the Drop of an Injury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I killed them," he uttered. "Stars above, I killed them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Comic.](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160486351734/faithtale-au-chapter-1-promising-student) Faithtale belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/).

"O-okay, we know you've got questions-"

"Understatement of the year."

"-but don't panic, and let us finish before you say anything, okay?"

Toriel sighed softly, and crossed her arms. "Alright."

To say that Tori'd been worried was like trying to use a monster SOUL to break the barrier. She was terrified, confused, and helpless because she had no idea what was going on or what she could do to help.

And after a while, a little miffed too. When were they going to tell her about all this? Or would it be something else that no one would tell her about?

Gaster had just started _melting_ , back then. He'd grunted and suddenly collapsed on one knee, his face covered by an oozing skeletal hand while Alphys frantically tried to calm him down. And the stuff he was melting off was...unnerving. It was darker than dark, and it slid off of him like it had its own accord, and Toriel couldn't shake the feeling of pure _wrongness_ when she touched him. Something like that, whatever it was, had no place being there or inside him.

And after being kept in the dark about everything else, she was going to find _answers_.

So once Gaster stabilized and Alphys checked that Frisk's settings were finalized, Toriel dragged them back to his office so someone could at least tell her what was going on.

"O-okay, so..." Alphys and Gaster exchanged glances, and she gave him a tiny nod. "How much do you know about the barrier's Determined SOUL?"

What in the name of the stars did human SOULs have to do with monster form destabilization?

"...Next to nothing. No one knows about it." Which confused her. She had lived in the Ruins, with her mother, for her entire life, that is, until her mother died. And usually, she would see children fall, would heal them, but would try everything in her power to keep them from crossing the door.

But children were naturally curious, and keeping them in the same place for the rest of their lives was selfish, yes, but she couldn't bear the thought of them dying by a monster's hand.

And she lived close to where the entrance was, so it surprised her when the last Determined SOUL was found when she hadn't met a single human.

"Wellllll...the owner of the SOUL were...uhm...they were friends with Gaster."

"How?" she asked immediately. None of this was adding up.

Alphys opened her mouth to speak when Gaster stretched out his arm in front of her and shook his head, a signal to stop.

"One of my recent experiments were lackluster, so I decided to talk a walk to gather my thoughts," he recalled, sockets closed, mouth in a straight line, "I visited Waterfall, Snowdin, the Capital, and then the Ruins, but I only noticed how far I was when something fell on top of me.

"They had brown hair, were relatively small, with pale-skin and a striped shirt. Sometimes they were afraid of me. Sometimes they knew what I was going to say before I did. And they looked almost exactly like Frisk."

Gaster hesitated, his eyes darting from both sides before he said, "They were the sweetest child I could ever come to meet. They told me  about how awful humanity had been to them and wanted to help the monsters reach the surface, and me with my research, so...they gave me a small portion of their Determination."

"What?" Toriel asked sharply. "But you know what happened to the amalgamates--what were you thinking?" Is that why he was melting ? Because his body was fighting to stay compact?

"I still hear them, sometimes," he continued, unperturbed by her interruption. "Even if it's just their Determination, it came from their SOUL. Sometimes I recall memories that I know aren't mine and things I don't remember doing. But now they're gone. And of all things, I'm still here."

"Do you think th-they could hear you through their Determination?" inquired Alphys timidly.

"I can only feel them in bursts and sparks, and because it's Determination, my SOUL takes it in the only way it can, and I destabilize."

Toriel sighed. "Okay," she said. "Alright. I'm glad you told me. But just..." she moved to place a hand on his shoulder, and Gaster looked at her in relief. Did he really expect her to be angry at him after all of that? She knows what it's like to lose someone too, and was thankful for the explanation. Maybe next time if this happened she wouldn't be as helpless. "Let me know if this happens again, please?"

"Of course."

The three of them made their way out of the office and into the halls, taking the elevator. Toriel still needed to get back. It was nearing lunchtime, and if Undyne was visiting then no way would her kitchen be spared any mercy.

It made her think on the Determined Child. He never told her their name, probably for the best, she didn't want him to start crumbling away again. But it still begs the question as to what exactly happened to them and how their SOUL was used to break the barrier.

"Gaster?" she asked. "What exactly...happened to them?"

He blinked, quirking his brow like he hadn't heard what she said despite walking alongside her and then he stopped, his face mirrored one of panic, the lights in his eyes went haywire as he said--

"I killed them," he uttered, his fists clenching and releasing, and Toriel didn't miss the way Alphys rolled her eyes. But she was still in a state of shock, staring at him, dumbfounded. "Stars above, I killed them."

"Gaster," Alphys groaned, and then tugged Toriel further along, unoblivious to his lagged pace, and then whispered to Tori in an aside, "he didn't really kill them. They just got really sick and he feels awful about it to this day. I keep telling him there was nothing he could do, but...he still feels like their death is his fault."

Well that cleared that up, thankfully, and Toriel, with a resigned sigh and a nod, bid them goodbye (and gave Gaster a hug, the poor guy looked like he needed it) and was on her way home.

The day was...something, to say the least. To say the most could fill up an entire a book, from meeting a human with a determined SOUL she had something in common with, finding out something could traumatize the human brain enough to the point where it just forgets what it sees, and learning that Gaster's SOUL was in turmoil with a piece of his friends' determination in some weird pseudo-bond.

Honestly, she could write a dissertation on all the conflicting emotions she was feeling, but she had a houseful of kids and a kitchen to save, so she shook off her discomfort and went on her way.

When she got home, she was surprised to see everyone gathered at the table eating, talking amicably, and laughing jovially. The air smelled of oregano and spices, and when she walked to check the kitchen she found the pots in the sink and the occasional smear of tomato sauce, but otherwise it looked relatively clean.

"Tori!" Undyne called, waving at her from her seat next to Gerson. "We saved a plate for you!"

"Miss Toriel!" Papyrus crowed, jumping from his seat in a rush to hug her. She almost teetered from the force. And chuckled lightly.

"Hello, Papyrus," she said sweetly, picking him up and twirling him around as he giggled. And then soon all of the children were coming from their seats, even Undyne hugging onto her and asking her where she was, saying they were so worried about her, and were so happy to have her back. In just the span of a few hours her vacancy was met with worried children.

She knelt on one knee and wrapped her children in a group hug. She pushed the thoughts of today away and reassured them that she was okay. She was met with varying responses of content and she smiled. After a day like today, when she was bombarded by things she had to keep secret from everyone she loved, getting to be able to hug the little children was enough, for now.

* * *

When he first started preparing for the test, he devised theories and speculations on the innermost subjects it would go over. He canceled out topics on Monster biology, when based on the synopsis of the test, whatever they were working on didn't include any experimentation on Monsters whatsoever, but included work around machinery, magic, and most importantly, working with humans.

That one got to him. What was Gaster getting at here? Since Resurfacing humans have been nothing but tactless and rude, even as the years passed. And then in order to protect everyone they all had to be relocated to a country that was passive aggressive on having Monsters live on their territory. Sans read the books. He's done his research. If Gaster's trying to find associates then mentioning humans would drive more people away.

Which, thinking about it, was probably what he wanted, seeing as The Experiences is a rather closed off lab.

But what could be so significant about humans that Gaster would list them explicitly?

Saying his test was difficult was an understate wrapped up in a thick lining of sarcasm. The only relieving thing was that he was right about the lack of Monster-esque questions, instead most were concerned around human safety, biology, and oddly enough, psychology and trauma. He was asked to list what types of mental disorders would lead to certain situations and certain extremities that were terrifyingly fragile.

And they had _skeletons_ in them, surrounded by the stuff. No wonder people gave Gaster looks whenever he had been in meetings with Asgore. It's eerie how similar he, Pap, and him all were to them. Then again if Monsters had been the norm on the surface and humans were the ones to surface...

Yeah, no. He was not going down that train of thought.

Don't get him started on the SOUL aspect of humans, either. There was a bonus section on the test, which meant he was free to try it out if he wanted and it wouldn't count for or against his grade, but when the synopsis said 'with humans' he didn't think about getting to know the bare bones of them. That section was more about how their SOULS worked than actually talking about them.

There were books on how the barrier was broken, on how several children fell into the underground and eventually died, and while humans were furious about it for years, holding petitions to throw the king in jail or protesting outside of their walls, (and some still are) there was really nothing that could be helped. Monster food was comprised solely on magic, which meant the children would starve to death, the air underground wasn't fresh, they could suffocate, and it wasn't healthy for humans to live without the vitamins the sun provided.

And when people asked for the seeming 'lack' of alternatives, it got annoying to repeat that they couldn't grow much organic food, and they tried what they could with monster SOULs and had almost killed them. What were the monsters supposed to do, let the children die a painful death before carting their SOULs away?

Monsters were made of Love, HoPe, and Compassion. They didn't want to kill the children, but in some cases, where they would get violent and fight, monsters could either refrain from fighting back or defend themselves. But the harmless children were taken and put to sleep. Given a drug to slow their heart enough to silence it. And Monsters would gather to mourn the loss of the child and bury them under a sea of flowers. It was the respectable thing to do, really.

But that didn't mean they knew how their SOULs worked. And by how volatile Monsters got from coming into contact with them, their SOULs weren't exactly keen on being figured out, either.

Maybe that was what Gaster was trying to understand.

But he'd done it. He could pat himself on the back now. Testing was over. He was finally finished.

The thing he hated about standardized testing was how unnecessary all of it was. _Yes_ , people know not to take pictures of the test, _yes_ , they all knew what would happen, and _yes_ , they understood the consequences. They didn't have to say it for every single section of the goddamn thing. Just say it once, hope no one's stupid enough to even try, and then take the test. Nothing overly complicated about it. They didn't sign that fucking confidentiality waiver for nothing.

And he hated how frayed it would make him feel at the end of the day. His eye-lights were strained. He felt so numb. He was pretty sure skeleton monsters could get carpal tunnel now.

But no matter how tired he was, he still needed to go and pick Paps up from Tori's place. That was one thing he could be able to do today without it ending up in a headache.

He stumbled when he teleported over there, though. Maybe he was wrong about that.

He shook his head in an attempt to regain his composure. It barely worked. Ugh. He was going to collapse the second he got home with Papyrus. He was already feeling the sharp stab of pain in his wrist as he knocked.

"Hmm? Oh, hello, Sans!" came Toriel's voice as she opened the door. He nodded in greeting. A cat monster was on her hip this time. It seemed like the kids could never get enough of her. They cooed as she craned her neck to call out for his brother. "Papyrus! Sans's here!"

At that, there was another kid, familiar, with blue scales and fiery red hair and she darted out the door and skidded to a stop in front of him. She seemed to be pouting.

"Aw, man, already, dude? It's not even, like, six, yet!"

"sorry, kiddo," he shrugged not-so-apologetically. "'s gonna get dark soon."

"And Papyrus needs his sleep," Toriel gently reminded her.

"Ngahhh...FINE!" she stomped back into the house dramatically, and stomped back  out, dragging an exasperated Paps by the back of his shirt. "But only THIS time."

"uh-huh. 'n what's gonna happen next time?"

"Next time I'll kick your bony butt into next WEEK!! Then me 'n Paps'll have to hang out longer!!"

"mm-hm. keep on dreamin', bud."

He was able to hear Toriel's laugh and Undyne's subsequent roar as he and his brother disappeared and reappeared back home.

"you alright, bro?" he asked once they materialized in the kitchen. Paps hadn't even said goodbye to Toriel during the whole thing with Undyne. Did something happen?

"Hm? I'm fine! Undyne just...put things into perspective."

"really, now?" He couldn't imagine the little fish monster saying something with actual symbolic meaning behind it, let alone think of her putting something into 'perspective'.

"Yeah!" Papyrus chirped, sliding his backpack off of his shoulders. "You know Gaster, the guy you're gonna work for?"

"yeah..." he didn't like where this was going.

"Well, Toriel got a call from Gaster-"

"what?" Tori's in cahoots with him? Huh. He'd have to ask her about that later.

"I know, right? She got a call from him and had to leave for a little while, so I got a little worried, because...I thought he was kinda scary. I mean! I've only never seen him around, and hearing him on the phone kinda made me nervous..."

Sans maneuvered around the kitchen table to pull out chairs for them to sit in. "go on."

When Papyrus took his seat he swung his legs against the rim of it. "So Undyne tells me this thing that her grandpa tells her, and it made me feel a little better."

"what'd she say?"

"That 'something weird might be something familiar from a different angle,' or something like that." He made quotation signs with his fingers. "It made me think about a couple of things, and after a while I felt better."

"aw, pap," Sans chuckled, his early exhaustion thrown out the window. "if the old guy made ya uncomfortable you coulda just told me. c'mere?" he opened his arms for a hug, one Papyrus never turned down, and when satisfied when he gave him a relived grin and hugged him tightly.

"I-I just didn't wanna bother you about it," he mumbled sheepishly. "I mean, you hafta work hard in order to ace that test, right? I didn't wanna..."

Sans laughed, rubbing his brother's skull affectionately. Is that what he was worried about? "'s okay, bro. you could never bother me. if something makes you nervous don't be afraid t'tell me, alright?"

"Okay..."

"you promise?"

"I promise."

"cool. you wanna watch a movie before bed?"

He perked up exceptionally. "Yeah!!"

They ended up watching Monsters Inc because it's Pap's favorite, and just before Sully takes Boo home he fell asleep. Sans scooped up his brother and tucked him in bed, pressing a toothy kiss on his forehead.

There's a familiarity in the way he headed off to bed, falling onto his mattress and staring up at the stucco ceiling. He didn't immediately go to sleep that night. If Gaster was trying to hire humans and Toriel either knew him or was working with him, what did all that mean?

He felt an almost sickening wave of deja-vu. Has he done this before?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. What was he thinking about, again? Something about Toriel, but...he couldn't remember.

Askance and slightly shaken, he pulled up his covers and tried to fall asleep.

* * *

When Frisk woke up, groggy and stiff, she almost panicked when she realized she wasn't at home. So she didn't dream the whole meeting the monsters thing. Whoop-de-fucking-do.

But she was startled after she had yawned and rubbed her eyes, spitting her hair out of her mouth when she turned around, because who wouldn't be at least startled when you wake up in a tank full of magical water with a gaggle of humans staring down at you from the tube above?

And then there was the girl. The pale girl with light brown hair and a startling blue eye. Her eyes wide, her mouth set in a line, she didn't look happy or suspicious of Frisk's appearance.

And Frisk couldn't tell whether or not that worried her.


	6. Every Penny Has a Silver Lining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's at times like these when she started miss Charlotte. She would've loved to see this. The water Frisk was swimming in would've been perfect for her little flower garden; Charlotte always did love flowers, especially golden ones—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late! Just needed to catch up with my classes. In any case, here you go!
> 
> [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160486351734/faithtale-au-chapter-1-promising-student) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.

Six humans of different sizes and colors, all staring at her. They all had bandages wrapped around an arm or a leg and they stared at her with confused and neutral expressions on their face.

They probably wouldn't understand sign language.

"Uhm...good morning?" Frisk tried, because the last thing she was going to do was be unintentionally rude, at least, not again. She surprised when she could hear her voice almost clearly through the water. They all began to relax and smile, throwing their own greetings her way.

"Heyo!"

"Hello."

"'Sup."

"Good morning to you too!"

"Nice to meet you!"

"H-hi."

She chuckled as the tension began to seep out of her, her laughs rising bubbles to the surface of her tank. These people were so nice. Overall, there were six, and she recognized some, other than the blue-eyed girl. A boy with tanned skin and dark hair, and pale girl with a bright smile and brown hair. She didn't recognize the rest of them, though.

"Have you started off your morning yet?" a hushed voice asked her. It took her a second later it came from Blue-Eyes, who was looking at Frisk softly. "We didn't mean to wake you up."

"Uh...I don't really know?" Frisk shrugged helplessly. "I dunno how things're run here. Is there something I'm supposed to do?"

If there's some human/monster faux pas she could steer clear of committing, that'd be great.

"Ah, okay. Yeah, there is, but we can't really leave until we've gotten checked on." She turned her head to the side, and her eyes widened fractionally. "Uh-oh. Here comes Alphys. Hey," she turned back to Frisk, "once you're done, take two lefts and a right. That's where you'll find me, okay?"

"Alright," she agreed.

"Cool. We'll see you in a little bit."

The gang dispersed, taking off in different directions quickly, the bandages drifting behind them lazily. Frisk briefly wondered how they could swim so fast. Then again, she'd only been here for what, a day?

And! She hadn't lost her memory during her sleep. _Thank goodness_. She wouldn't know what she'd do if she did.

She saw Alphys approaching from the corner of her eye with a basket and attempted to swim towards the glass, swinging her limbs around haphazardly while barely getting close to her destination. She pouted as Alphys began to snicker.

 ***Not funny,** she signed indignantly.

"Ha, sorry, c-can't help it." Alphys shrugged apologetically. She flicked a couple of switches on the Heart, and the screen whirred to life, displaying Frisk SOUL. She nodded, satisfied, before turning back to Frisk. "How did you sleep?"

She shrugged, as best as she could while aimlessly floating. ***Pretty good, I guess...no memory loss, so that's a good thing, right?**

Alphys beamed, scribbling onto her clipboard. "Of course it is! Hopefully this means your brain has deemed your situation safe enough to continue recording in conscious memory. Of course, I still want to run a couple of tests just to be sure, but that can wait for later."

***Alright.**

"Okay, soooo..." she redirected her attention to the Heart and started jotting on her paper, the movements of her pen accentuated with her occasional mumbling. "Eighty beats per minute...good, good, what about-ah, okay..."

Frisk followed the move of her pen with her eyes. The tip of it was all black, with a white face and narrowed, black eyes, with little red indents above and below them. It had an open-mouth smile as it clasped its cartoony hands, and it sorta reminded her of-

"Hey Alph?"

Alphys perked up from her clipboard. "Yeah?"

"What kind of pen is that?"

"Huh? Oh!" Alphys chuckled. "No, no, it's a decorative pen from a movie I really like. This guy's name is Kaonashi, or No-Face."

No-Face.

***But. He has a face.**

"Yeah, it took me a while, too."

It's an odd name, but Alphys seems to like it, so Frisk let it drop. Instead she focused on how similar No-Face looked like Gaster. White face, black sockets, entirely black, kinda like that one time where he was melting.

Wait. Where was he anyway? Didn't he say he was 'excited' at 'the prospect of working' with her? Kinda rude to say that and then not show up on the first day.

Unless-

"Alphys?"

"Mm-hm?" she answered distractedly.

"Where's Gaster?"

Alphys' face fell, stirring Frisk's interest. "He isn't feeling so well. He, uh, y'know," she gestured vaguely with her hand, "started falling apart after Tori left, so I left him in his office with Amari."

 ***Is he going to okay?** Back when Frisk had last seen him like that, it was at her soul. She can still remember how his drooping socket crawled down his face, and the worn, stricken expression in his other eye and in the curve of his mouth.

"I...don't really know." Alphys looked unsure. But then she squared her shoulders with a glint in her eye. "B-but he's been talking to me more often, so I'm s-sure he'll be fine!"

Well Frisk certainly was glad that Alphys and Gaster were getting along, but this...melty side of him seemed to be getting out of hand. Worriedly, too. This was, what, the second time this happened?

Frisk's no brain surgeon but she can tell by the look on Alphys' face that this wasn't normal.

"Alphys?" she asked, as the scientist's attention was focused on the Heart.

"Yeah?" she repeated, keeping her attention on the control board. She reached over and flicked a series of switches in a straight line, and Frisk felt the temperature slowly decrease.

"To wake you up quicker," she explained, before pressing a red button. "And that's what keeps it stagnant. Anyway, is something wrong?"

***No...but has this thing with Gaster always been happening?**

Alph sighed. "Not really? I mean," she began to fiddle with the controls, absentmindedly, "I already told you he's been like this before, but it's not like. An everyday thing. Usually this stuff's rare. But I can't decide on whether it's you or Ch _-Imean_ his friend he had back when we were all underground."

"They must've been really important to him if he thinks about them after all this time," Frisk wondered.

"Yeah. He tells me they were something else. You probably would've liked them, too."

"Would I?"

"Uh-huh. He says that you remind him of them."

Frisk stewed in her silence as Alphys recorded the last of her findings from the display screen. What would they be like, she wondered? Gaster was already a mysterious man himself, so it's difficult to imagine how a kid could have so much influence over someone like him. And Gaster's only known her for a day. What about Frisk could be so similar to his friend?

Probably her soul. Most likely her soul.

"Alright, everything seems stable, and I assume you already met everyone, so you're-oh! Whoops." She pulled out some fruit form her basket. "You're probably hungry, right?"

That was actually the furthest thing from her mind, but at seeing the fruit her stomach went into overdrive, growling hungrily. Alphys stared, amused.

"Yeah, I'll never get why it does that. Here." She moved to the face of the tank, and carefully pushed the fruit from an open slot on the side. How the water wasn't pouring through remains a mystery. Probably magic.

The fruit floated up to her and Frisk snatched them from the water. Two small apples, and a bunch of grapes. Frisk plucked the grapes off of their stem as she munched on them.

"Does that mean I'm free to go?" she asked.

"Oh, of course!" Alphys chirped, pocketing her pen in her lab coat. "I'm sure everyone's excited to meet you."

Frisk nodded, and Alphys flicked two switches and pressed a blue button. Slowly but surely, Frisk felt the current of the water move upwards, directing her into the upper tubing.

"We'll run some tests later," confirmed Alphys. "For now, go say hi to everyone!"

She watched Alphys leave as she was faced with two choices. A path to her left, and one to her right. Blue-Eyes did ask to meet up after she was dismissed, so she took the directions she had given her.

She could see so much from up here. Monsters of all shapes and sizes walked around, talking to their humans in their respective Examinators, and Frisk felt the commotion similar to how she would wake up on a normal morning. As more humans awoke, the hustle and bustle of the lab increased. She saw monsters walking in groups occasionally, chatting and gesturing to their own data, and she saw others laughing, along with humans darting here and there through the tubes. She took a bite of her first apple thoughtfully. She wondered how long it would take 'til she got to meet all of them.

Magic. She was going to use Monster magic.

Despite her early qualms with, oh, you know, being taken from her home with no recollect of her memories, she was still given the opportunity of a lifetime. She couldn't help the childish excitement bubbling inside her. The type of magic she knew only existed in books, in fairytales, in the whispered stories her mother would tell Frisk and her sister before bed as a kid. Now she was going to live those stories.

Hell, she's swimming in _magical_ _water_. If anything she's as close as possible to being able to use the stuff.

It's at times like these when she started miss Charlotte. She would've loved to see this. The water Frisk was swimming in would've been perfect for her little flower garden; Charlotte always did love flowers, especially golden ones—

 "Hey!" a familiar voice called to her, muffled from the water. Startled, Frisk whipped her head around. Across from her was Blue-Eyes, waving her arm energetically. "Over here!"

Wait.

Was Frisk supposed to go—

Frisk retraced her steps(?), and as luck would have it, she was going the completely wrong way.

Fuck.

 ***Hi-** "I mean, hi!" She needed to stop forgetting that most people don't speak sign language anymore. The monsters made her too comfortable with it. She swam (well, as best as she could with a grape stem, apple core, and an unfinished apple) towards the girl, who looked to be doing her best not to snicker at her antics.

"Don't laugh," insisted Frisk.

"I won't, I won't," the girl promised, looking a little more inquisitive. "It's just that I've never met someone so bad at swimming before."

"Well I never lived by the coast, so I wouldn't know," Frisk huffed. Blue-Eyes laughed then, her one visible eye crinkling with mirth.

"You're funny," she said. "I like you."

"Uh...thanks?" replied Frisk. "You seem pretty nice yourself."

"Thanks!" She beamed. It was a whole different side from the way she was staring at her earlier. What made everything change?

"Anyway, my name is Amy," she said, tilting her head forward in a little curtsy. "You are?"

"Frisk," she said, a slight smile tugging at her lips. "Call me Frisk."

"Frisk...odd name."

Frisk shrugged. "Yeah, I know. Kinda why I have it."

"Huh," said Amy, arching her brows in configuration. "Okay," she agreed, a moment later. Whatever she must've been thinking about must not've been important.

"C'mon." she gestured with her shoulder behind her, where the tubing sloped downwards. If she concentrated, she could see the rest of the humans in a gaggle, some of them the first six she met in the morning.

Amy must've seen the tension square her shoulders because she grabbed Frisk's arm and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry," she soothed. "It's gonna be fine. Everyone's gonna love you!"

Frisk set her jaw. "I sure hope so."

* * *

_They're both laughing._

_He couldn't recall for the life of him what was so funny, but he likes how they laugh; loud, unabashed, it makes their eyes crinkle and their shoulders shake. It makes them look happy. It's a wonderful laugh._

_"Hey," they try to say amid their giggles, and they hold up a tool akin to a hammer. "What did one screw say to the other when they saw this coming?"_

_Did he know how this one would end? Most likely. But he stilled himself anyway and continued to play along with them. There's a rarity in the exuberance in the air, the kind of feeling you only get once in a blue moon, and he's seen how the surface treated his friend._

_If he could give them the happy little moments they deserved up there, then stars be dammed, he'll give that to them and more._

_"What?" he asks, smirking._

_"'This is not a drill,'" they stage whisper, and then fall into boisterous giggles, the brown of their hair falling in front of their face, nearly covering the wide grin that sat there. He chuckled a little himself; he had to admit it was a little funny._

_"Aw, c'mon, Mystery Man!" they spout, jumping to their feet._ (Why were they sitting?) _"I wanna see who the machine was made after! You promised to show me!"_

_"Alright, alright," he says, and he takes pride at how their eyes widen in delight. "I suppose I did promise, didn't I?"_

_They're bouncing on their toes. "Mm-hm!"_ (He hates how much he misses that.)

_"Fine," he grins, gives a little wave with his hand. Behind him forms a huge bestial skull, all angles and curves, with gaping black sockets filled with red eyes._

_"Whoa," they breathe, and they cling to his pant leg as they look up at the floating skull. "He's ginormous!"_

_The skull huffs, blowing steam through his nasal cavity, and they giggle. He's pleasantly surprised to see that they aren't afraid of him as they would be, or, as any regular child would at seeing an enormous skull staring at them, but he never considered them to be normal._ (When would surviving a fall that long ever be considered any of the sort?)

_Then there's that look they get on their face when they concentrate; their eyes narrow into slits and their mouth sets into a line, and they lean towards the blaster, scrutinizing them with red eyes._

_"He's funny," they say after they pull away, smiling. "I like him." And then they look up at him hopefully. "Can I touch him?"_

_He waves a gesture with his right hand. "Go right ahead."_

_They grin, and raise a sleeved arm at the skull and look at him warmly. He huffs one last time before slowly inching towards their hand. They smile as he gets ever closer, the red of their cheeks warming as the skull softly butts his snout against their hand._

_They keep staring him in the eyes, slowly rubbing their digits against him._

_"He kinda feels like you," they murmur, and they press their fingers into him slightly. "His bones are soft. Kinda like yours."_

_"Well, he should be," Gaster provides. "He's made with my magic, after all."_

_They chuckle, and move their hand in a soothing motion across the skull. "He's a big ol' sweetheart," they declare, pressing a kiss to his snout. They stick out their bottom lip as they contemplate. "I'm gonna name him...Red!"_

_"How creative."_ (He still calls them that to this day.)

_"Hey!" they pout, and he erupts into laughter._

_"Apologies, apologies," he says, covering his mouth with his hand. They stand with their hands on their hips and stare at him stubbornly, which only causes him to laugh harder._

_"Mystery Maaaan!" they whine._ (They never did say his name too much. He never got the chance to ask why.)

_"Okay, okay." He grins. "How about we get back to work?"_

_"On one condition," they say. (_ There's something heartbreakingly painful about the hope in way they smile.) _"Can Red stay?"_

_He smiles. "Of course he can."_

_They beam, an reach for another tool when—_

(Stop it stop it STOP enough with the memories it hurts it hurts he can feel his soul pulsing it HURTS—)

 _"Whoa," they say, their eyes widening at the little blue flower in front of them. The stem reaches to their shoulders, and the flower itself is almost as big as their face._ (They always liked to bury their face into them.)

_"Echo Flowers," Gaster says, on one knee to get a better look. "They repeat the last thing you say."_

_"They repeat the last thing you say," the flower repeats. It's tinnier, but it's definitely his voice. His friend gasps, and for a second he thinks he sees stars in their eyes._

_"That's so cooool," they croon excitedly._

_"That's so cooool," the flower repeats._

_They chuckle for a moment, and then sigh._ (It never ceased to amaze him, how quickly they can switch from being a seven-year old kid to a human with the weight of all Monsterkind on their shoulders.) _"Imagine if everybody got to see this."_

_He already knows what their insinuating. "No."_

_"But it isn't fair!" They exclaim. "It's not fair that you guys have to live here like this. I've seen the garbage in Waterfall and how monsters have to sort through it, I know how much magic you guys need just to power everything, and I've seen how unhappy you guys are down here-it isn't FAIR."_

_"Cha-"_

_"No," they say vehemently, and they point above, at the stalactites glistening in the distance. "I'm the one thing that can help you guys get to the surface, and if it takes dying for you guys to get up there, then it'll be worth it."_

_He can feel it; their Determination rising inside their SOUL, and the portion inside his replies back, beginning to double, triple, quadruple until_ —

(He needs to wake up he needs to wake up he needs to wake up RIGHT NOW—)

_Their name sounds warbled when he says it, but they still turn their head anyway at the sound._

_"H-hey," they mutter, and then erupt into coughs. He adjusts their pillow and softly sifts his fingers through their hair._

_"How do you feel?" he asks gently._

_"Awful," they say good naturedly, "like usual."_

_They laugh, and amid this he still can't understand what's funny about their situation. They sigh, and snuggle deeper into the duvets._

_"Gaster," they say, and he looks at them, bewildered. They only ever said his name when they were deadly (heh) serious._

_They crane their neck to look at him, and even in the gaunt pale of their cheeks and the sleepy lines carved into their face, they still look as Determined as they did when they first fell down here._

_"It's gonna be okay," they promise, and it's not what he wants to hear (then again, what was he expecting?) and they reach for his hand, theirs so small, so fragile._

_They squeeze his hand (well, they try to) and they look painstakingly desperate when they say his name again._

_"Yes?"_

_"I want you to promise me."_

(The memories are fading.)

(The voices cutting deeper.)

 _They set their jaw stubbornly and almost immediately he knows what they're going to want from him._ (STOP.)

_"Gaster."_

(ENOUGH.)

_"Give my SOUL to-"_

**_(WAKE UP.)_ **

There was something touching his hand.

Warm, he immediately noticed. Scaley.

He shot forward with a hurried gasp and nearly collided into Alphys on the way up. She visibly hesitated for only a second before throwing her arms around him in a hug.

"Dude," Amaryllis said from somewhere behind him. "That looked _intense_."

"Don't do that again!" Alphys insisted, pulling back to grip his shoulders firmly and glare at him.

He could laugh, like he'd always do and shake it off, but Alphys was staring at him like he was glass, fragile cool so volatile, like she could lose him in an instant.

So he just.

Hugged her back, gave her a little squeeze as he did, because stars above did he need it.

"Fine, fine," he said, a lopsided smile tugging at him. He already knew what she was going to ask before she did. "Promise."

Let's just hope he could keep this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He doesn't consider himself as such, but Gaster's a pretty sentimental guy. Which ultimately leads him into making promises that he knows are going to break, but he does them anyway. He'll try to work on it.


	7. The Way the Cake Crumbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well, duh," said Mabel cheerfully. "You didn't honestly think it was just some gang that konked you out and suddenly you ended up in another country, did you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title: We parallel with the comic for the first time!
> 
> Well, kind of.
> 
> Apologies for being dead for so long! A kudos to those who reminded to stay on track! Thanks, you guys!
> 
> [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/post/160486351734/faithtale-au-chapter-1-promising-student) belongs to [@momishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smolvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.

The familiar smell of sea tea wafted towards him as he pulled himself into an upright position, his spine protesting. Alphys sat next to him, clutching his hand and helping him, but he waved her away. As nice as the attention is, he needed to get up and do something. Get his thoughts out of his head.

Alphys huffed, but remained quiet nonetheless, allowing Amaryllis to pass him the brew.

"Not gonna lie, ya had us kinda worried there," she said, arms akimbo. "Try not to do that again?"

Gaster scoffed good-naturedly. "Sure. Next time I'll be sure to swan dive for you."

"That's my guy."

It made him chuckle, but otherwise didn't help in dispelling the tension in the air. Amaryllis fidgeted for a second before a look came about her face.

"Hey...you okay?" she asked, uncharacteristically hesitant.

"I'm fine."

"You're sure?" Alphys asked, looking at him worriedly.

He sighed, glaring at the little china cup in his hand, huffed, and then set it on the table next to him as he stood up and began to pace his office.

There's a reason why these memories keep coming back to him. There's a way that someone this girl is causing it. You can't go a couple years all fine and dandy and suddenly some girl undermines all your years of work with just a look.

"Something's missing," he insisted as he paced the room. Amaryllis came to sit next to Alphys on the love seat. "Something doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?" Alphys inquired.

"Isn't it odd how I've been fine for the longest time, but now that she's here I've destabilized nearly three times in a row?"

"No?" replied Amari. "I mean, if she just looks familiar to an old friend, then I don't see why not?"

"It's not just that. She looks just like them and has their SOUL type. I don't understand. She's completely different from them, lives on entirely different continent, and yet somehow she affects me on the near-damn scale they did. It doesn't make _sense."_

Frisk has the longer hair, the darker skin, the softer face. She's smooth where they were rough, quiet where they were loud, and contemplative where they were exuberant. Nothing alike. She shouldn't be affecting him this much.

"And what I don't get," he started, "is how sometimes I'm fine around her and others I'm near finished, like is her SOUL just decided to leap out of her chest."

"That doesn't make any sense..." Alphys pointed out, starting to stand up. "She has the looks and the SOUL, yeah, but that sounds like something akin to a flickering light bulb. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not, but there's an explanation for that, while nothing for this."

"Do you think she knows?" asked Amari. Both Alphys and Gaster shook their heads.

"No way. She didn't even know she had a SOUL 'til we pulled hers out. There's no possible way."

"Should we test it then?"

"I _want_ to say yes, but-" Alphys and Gaster exchange glances "-I don't want you to get hurt."

"Alph-"

"Gaster-"

"Whoa, whoa, okay, let's calm down before we get another fight on her hands," Amari interjected, her arms spread wide between the two. "While we should test it, just to see if there's anything that can curb its effects, we still need you, dude." The bunny monster turned to Gaster. " We can't just run tests like this willy-nilly. We need a plan, alright?"

Alphys sighed. "Alright."

Gaster nodded once, solemn. "It's sounds fine to me."

"Good." Amari lowered her arms. "Now, about Frisk's memory..."

* * *

 

Amy led Frisk into the group of people conversing, chatting, laughing, exchanging jokes and just overall having a good time. Like they love it here.

Frisk didn't understand.

They made a path for her as soon as they saw Amy, and immediately did Frisk begin to get self-conscious, no matter how silly it was. She's trapped in a testing facility somewhere in _the fucking U.S_ , and this is what she's worried about? People looking at her?

Talk about priorities.

"Don't worry," reassured Amy. "They're just looking cause you're new. You can say hi later. Right now, I wanna introduce you to my friends. And here they are!"

The rest of people she'd met when she woke up came into view, and they cheered when Amy swam with Frisk in tow.

"Hey, look, Ames's back!"

"W-who's your friend?"

"Aw, she's cute!"

"Isn't she the new one?"

"Yo."

Frisk flushed, giving them a nervous smile, while Amy laughed good-naturedly. "Yeah, guys, this's Frisk. She's the new one and she's real nice. Show her a good time, yeah?"

"It's nice to meet you! Well, again." One of them swam up to her, the boy with tan skin and dark hair. "I'm Carmen."

"I'm Mia!" piped the girl next to him, with lighter skin and hair.

"I'm Mabel!" declared a dark-skinned brunette.

"X-xavier." muttered a lighter skinned boy.

"And I'm Janine!" a white brunette chorused.

So many people from different backgrounds and colors. Even through her nervous shuffling, she appreciated that they were able to get along. It's so nice to have people of different colors resort to something other than violence.

"It's nice to meet you," she said shyly, then, as an aside, asked; "Do any of you know sign language?"

They all shook their heads. "I'm pretty sure someone does, though," said Mia. The Monsters're real diverse with the people they take."

"Really?" Frisk asked. Finally, some more information? Sign her the fuck up?

"Yeah!" said Carmen. "They get people from all sorts of places, from Ghana all the way to freaking _Amsterdam_."

"You're serious?"

"Dead serious!" chirped Mabel. "I'm from Texas, Carmen's from Spain, Mia from Cuba, and I think Xavier's Canadian?"

"Huh." Frisk knit her brows together. "Is there any reason why they get so many different people?"

"It's because they want more diversity between SOUL types," Amy replied.

"Why?" Frisk wondered. "Is it because they're looking for the determined soul?"

"Sort of, yeah." Amy leaned against Frisk, one arm around her right one. "They think a SOUL differs by how, when, and where it was raised. Which kinda makes sense, given that a SOUL is supposed to be your everything 'n all."

"Okay, but how do they get people and ocean away over here without anyone saying anything?"

Amy snorts. "The Gov helps 'em out."

"Mm-hm," sighed Mia.

"W- _what?"_ Frisk near squeaked. "Wait, hang on, so, what, does the US just—just lets this _happen_?"

"Well, duh," said Mabel cheerfully. "You didn't honestly think it was just some gang that konked you out and suddenly you ended up in another country, did you?"

"Well actually, yeah!" Frisk insisted. "That's what Alphys told me!"

"S-she was only telling a half-truth," said Xavier gently. "And it's not as easy as grab someone and go."

"It's like...a food chain?" Carmen adds. "We're at the bottom, and we get transferred to different places and different people until we all end up here, at the top."

"And, what, do you guys like it here?" Frisk asked in disbelief.

"Not exactly," said Janine. "We're _glad_ we ended up here, instead of somewhere else."

"What?"

"See, here's the thing," said Amy suddenly, withdrawing herself from Frisk and crossing her arms. "At first glance, you wouldn't be able to tell if you were getting kidnapped by a US gang or an actual, literal, threat." Her gaze turned dark. "Tons of people get kidnapped every year and end up trafficking, or dead." Her gaze turned wistful. "We're aren't exactly thrilled at being held here, but it's better than somewhere else out there."

"Oh." Frisk hesitantly placed a hand on Amy's shoulder. "Right. Sorry."

Amy gave her a small smile. "It's fine."

They continued to talk for a good thirty minutes before a bell rung, and the rest of the humans swam out to their according examinator. Amy waved her friends goodbye and helped Frisk swim back to her hold.

"We'll gather back in the afternoon, okay?" reminded Amy.

"Alright."

"And don't worry. Everything's better here. Remember what I told you."

Frisk nodded. "I will."

Amy heads over to her examinator just as Alphys walks into her line of sight.

"How're you doing, Frisk?" she asked, unclipping her No-face pen from her clipboard.

"I'm fine."

Alphys nodded. "That's good to hear! Now, are you ready for examination?"

"Yeah. It's...not gonna hurt, right?" she asked apprehensively.

"Oh, no, of course not!" Alphys reassured. "We only need to check your heart rate and run some scans on your SOUL."

"Okay."

Alphys beamed, and then reached over to a set of switches on the Heart of the lab. As Alphys worked, the water inside Frisk's hold began to churn, and then glowed a soft red.

"Don't worry," Alphys said before Frisk could open her mouth. "It's just reflecting the color of your SOUL. Try to relax a little."

At that, Frisk calmed, but still strained against the new current of water. She felt just a light pressure on her chest, similar to that of when Gaster pulled out her soul, and watched as a cartoony red heart appeared on the monitor, and an arc of several other colors formed around it.

"As the examinator reads your SOUL, the traits it picks up the most appear onscreen," Alphys explained as she powered down the machine. "Your human needs appear on the side, like you heart rate, and temperature."

On the screen is, in fact, her soul, and the arc of color around it spans from purple, to green, light and dark blue, orange, and yellow.

"Interesting," Alphys mumbles aloud. "So you do have the traits a normal human would posses...but they don't show in your initial SOUL color."

Then Alphys blinked. "Wait, hang on...oh! It all makes sense now!"

She began to furiously scribble onto her clipboard, mumbling to herself in between. "If that's correct, then...every color and trait is present...that could only mean...!"

"What?" Frisk asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all!" Alphys chirped. "Turns out, I've just gotten some info on why you're SOUL's so rare!"

"Really?" Frisk wondered. "What is it?"

"Alph smiled sheepishly. "You might have to wait a while. I want to run it through with Gaster first before anything else, okay?"

"Oh." Her disappointment lasted for only a moment. "Speaking of Gaster, how is he?"

"Oh, he's fine!" Alphys replied absently as she reviewed her clipboard one more time. "He's running through some of the results from our earlier assessment."

"So, like, a test?"

"Oh! Yeah! I forgot to tell you, but you're getting a new partner! That way I can work with Gaster on the updates to the lab, and make sure you're in optimal health. Doesn't that sound nice?"

A tiny roll a fear in Frisk's stomach says otherwise. "Y-yeah."

"Don't worry," she reassured. "We're going through each submission to find you the perfect match! You've got nothing to worry about!"

"Alright."

"I'd better bring these results back to Gaster. Oh, he's gonna be so jazzed!"

Alphys waved before bustling off for Gaster's office, leaving Frisk to contemplate within the confines of her Examinator.

New company sounds nice. And they're making breakthroughs already. It felt nice to help, even if indirectly.

As the days pass, Frisk became more aware of her surroundings, and more inclusive to her new friends. The schedule for the day was always the same. Wake up, wait, run an examination, receive breakfast, exercise, then return for lunch and another examination, exercise some more. Then came dinner, one final exam, and then sleep, to repeat tomorrow.

It got boring sometimes, but Frisk didn't mind the break between each activity. Their exercises (just swimming around in the tubing, really) were kind of fun, and gave her the opportunity to brush up on her painfully embarrassing swimming tactics and explore parts of the lab she'd never known. By the time a full week'd passed, she was getting the hang of her balance ("Push with your _legs_ , Frisk, and use your arms to maneuver.") and had deepened her friendships.

Carmen was a sweetheart, always willing to lend a helping hand. Combined with Mia's can-do attitude, the two easily became her friends. Mabel was a sassy know-it-all, but never seemed to have the trouble in waiting for her friends to pick up her messages. Janine was kind as she was strong-headed, always willing to the right thing. Xavier, though shy, liked helping Frisk with her questions and inquiries, no matter silly they'd be or how hard Mabel'd roll her eyes at them.

Amy just seemed to be the adhesive keeping them all together.

Now they were extending their grip to her.

She was more than happy to accept.

* * *

 

Alphys settled into her office chair, grinning from ear to ear. A whole week since Frisk awoke, and nothing so far'd gone wrong. She'd talked to Gaster about Frisks Determ--apparently it wasn't the base building onto itself, but a combinations of all the traits conjoining together!

She'd had to schedule a meeting with the rest her coworkers to inform them and possibly change their definition of Determination, but so far, she was just happy that the week'd passed, on so smoothly, too!

Friday morning, and she was reviewing the submissions from the exam they'd had a while back. A ton of them had already been rejected, given that they didn't have the score she was looking for and weren't exactly qualified for working with humans. She wanted someone she could trust and count on, and okay, maybe even befriend.

She'd been pouring over them for hours, though. She'd already began to develop a headache, and consumed her third thermos of coffee. Maybe she needed a break.

 _Just one more_ , she promised herself. _One more, then I'll stop for now._

She opened the next submission, and then promptly gawked.

"A _skeleton_?"

There were _more_?

She hurriedly flipped the file to read his qualifications. Perfect score, damn. Only eighteen, wow.

"Oh, are you reading the submissions?"

"Yeah, yeah," she replied absentmindedly to the voice behind her.

Wait.

"G-gaster?" she squeaked as she whirled around. He wasn't even supposed to be here yet!

"Morning?" He smiled sheepishly. "Do you always give an immediate answer to anything someone asks you?"

"No," she huffed, recognizing the signs of an incoming pun. "I just knew it was you, that's all."

"Without acknowledging how I opened your locked door?"

"Magic," she replied, scrutinizing the skeleton's submission. He chuckled before walking next to her desk, leaning casually on the side.

"We got a lot of candidates this time around, didn't we?"

"Mhm."

"You didn't use my test, did you?" he asked, picking up one of the rejections, scowling, and then placing it back.

"I didn't," she answered, scribbling into her notebook.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"'Cause it's way too difficult for anyone to do!"

He snorted. "You did it."

She shrunk in on herself. "That's different."

"How different?"

She didn't reply.

He already knew the answer, anyway. Alphys was...different. Known for not having any use for her magic, or potential of, she'd committed herself to science and the arts. She wasn't exactly the conventional monster. Gaster knew that.

He peered at the paper she was squinting at. "Looks like we have a rather talented monster here, huh?"

"Ah...yeah." Her eyes red over the letters of the monster's name.

 _Sans_.

To be without.

 _He looks..._ Gaster cocked his head. _Familiar, at best._

He noticed the pensive look on Alphys' face. "Something wrong?"

"No."

Something's wrong. That was too quick of an answer.

"C'moooon, Alph," he pried. "What's wroooong? You can tell meeeeee."

She sighed loudly, placing her forehead on her desk, but otherwise held a small smile.

 _Good_ , he thought. _It should stay that way._

A one-eyed monster popped into her room. "Guys, c'mon. Go get some breakfast before work, alright?"

Gaster grinned, and Alphys rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "You just loooove food, don't you?"

He shrugged, unabashed. "Food contains the essential nutrients needed to provide nutritional support for the body." He straightened his lab coat. "C'mon. You should eat, too."

"Sure thing," she answered, before stamping a seal of approval on the skeleton's admission.

He bumped his hip against her side playfully, rustling her head affectionately. She huffed again, adjusted her lab coat, and followed him.

"Today's gonna be pretty exciting, huh?" she asked, grinning up at him.

"This time for sure," he promised, walking alongside her to the cafeteria. "We're going to find it."

* * *

 

Pap bounced back after his little admission on Gaster, no sweat, and was back to usual self again; performing crazy stunts with Undyne and trying to sprinkle indigestible flakes of metal into his cooking, for presentation. It's nice to have him back.

As usual, Sans' the first to wake up, with Papyrus traveling close behind. They'd made it their little game to see who could wake up the fastest and earliest. Sans saves himself the trouble of waking his brother, and Papyrus goes to bed earlier in order to wake up on time. Win-win.

They set up the usual, coffee for Sans and some off-brand cereal for Pap (Don't asks him why he likes that stuff; you'll never hear the end of it) and Sans watches Pap struggle to climb in his seat for a full minute before begrudgingly asking for help.

Once everything's good and done, they sit to eat, and Sans reads a portion of his bare-bones, cookie-cutter newspaper before saying;

"i was accepted."

Papyrus blinked owlishly.

"...Wha?"

"i was accepted," Sans repeated. "By the Experiences. Gaster's Lab?"

At this, Papyrus nodded, the bone of his mouth forming an 'o'. "When?"

"yesterday," he replied. "they said to stop by today."

"How?" No one knows exactly where, the Experiences are.

"...by phone? they called me the other day, so i'm assuming such."

"Why?"

"they seemed to like my score?"

Papyrus chewed thoughtfully for a few minutes, looking off into the distance. Sans shrugged it off and returned to his newspaper when Papyrus gasped loudly and promptly spit up his food.

Great.


	8. Into One Basket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Her name is Frisk.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so I arrive, like a wind storm at a kindergarten picnic
> 
> but with all honesty, hi, I'm back. I'm so sorry that I've been gone for so long, I actually lost interest, but I made a promise to myself, and to you. I'm seeing this thing the whole way through. I'm (tentatively) going to try a new schedule, a chapter out at least once a week. Hopefully, that should help. But either way, enjoy!
> 
> [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/tagged/comic) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!

"What?!" Papyrus yelled, slamming his fists on the table. Sans immediately raised his newspaper to shield himself from the incoming barrage of half-chewed corn flakes.

"what?" he asked, wiping the side of his skull with a napkin. "nothin to say?"

Papyrus kept looking at him in awe. And in a really surprised way, too.

"you didn't think I was goin' to pass, did you?"

"What? N-no!" Papyrus denied quickly. "It's just that...you know...Gaster's tests are supposed to be really hard to pass. Like, no one ever gets this far!" He stood up in his seat a little. "It's not like I thought you couldn't do it, it's just..."

"naw, it's fine, pap. i gotchu."

"Aren't you at least a little afraid?" Papyrus asked. There it is. "I heard that Gaster's supposed to be kinda intimidating."

"not really, given that i've never really met 'im. there's still a ton of more stuff to do, but i can't just quit just 'cause things'll get tougher, right?"

Papyrus smiled widely, little stars flickering around his eyes. Before Sans can ask, Pap's already out of his seat and traipsing upstairs.

"wow, okay," he said to no one in particular, rolling his eyes affectionately and turning his attention to the paper. Apparently one of the bird monsters got into a fight with a cat monster because of an ongoing argument over stock prices that’d turned violent.

 _it seems like anything'll make the headlines_ , he thought, turning the page. _can't tell if they're tryin' to distract the public or give 'em somethin' else to worry about._

Don't get him wrong, he loves his fellow monster-folk, but this is just ridiculous. It's been one hundred and fifty years, and the tensions with them are as high as if they'd just been freed yesterday. It's stupid. Why would they even try with people, anyway? Sure, some humans are nice, and've read up on their yearly subscription of How to Not Be a Dick, but some of them just make his metaphorical skin crawl.

It's like they've run out of people to blame. First it was the US Government, and then it was propaganda, and then they targeted anyone who decided that, _Hey, maybe we should be nicer to them given that they've been here longer than us and have advanced in the kind of technology we could only dream of?_

But apparently it's too hard to get a little compassion. Empathy. Something other than the people that still protest at their wall and the people that still demand their rights be violated in the face of their own beliefs.

What a time to be fucking _alive_.

Sans sighed, flicking at his newspaper, agitated. Humans can't use magic, nor could they even survive in the underground, but they've taken their world and shaped it to fit their fragile needs and weakness. They don't have magic, but the things they've done with what they have are commendable. He'll give them that.

If humans can't use magic, their bodies would react differently to it, right?

He can't help but wonder what would happen, if—

He heard the stomping just in time to swiftly scoop up his precious cup of coffee from the notorious gravity of Pap's footfalls.

"pap."

"Mhm?"

"what're you doing on the table."

Pap only grinned, scuttled onto his feet, and thrust a crudely drawn portrait of sans smiling, along with the words _Congratulations_! scrawled across the top.

Sans burst into laughter, gratefully taking the poster and telling himself to remember to hang it up in his room as Papryus hugs him.

"yeah, yeah, bro."

Today was going to be interesting.

"love you too."

After dropping Paps off at Tori's, with a little celebratory banter with her afterwards, he received a call from an unknown number. Figuring that it must be the Lab, given that he almost never gets random numbers these days, he answered.

"yellow?"

"Hello, " pleasantly replied the caller. "This is Sans, correct?"

"yeah, that's me."

"Great!" chirped the other line. "My name is Alphys, and I just wanted to say that we were very pleased with your test score."

"really?"

"Very. Do you know any day we could schedule an interview with you? Gaster would like to meet you, face to face. Is that alright?"

"perfectly," he answered, just a hint of apprehension rolling though him. "i'm free on Sunday, at around two?"

"Perfect!" chimed Alphys. "We look forward to meeting you, Sans."

From there, she gave him the directions to the Lab, and made it _very_ _clear_ not to share with anyone else, or he could kiss his opportunity goodbye.

"Are we clear?"

"crystal."

"Good. We'll see you tomorrow, at two, then."

She hung up, and Sans breathed heavily. Minus the threat laced in her words, he considered it to be a good start. He wondered why the Lab had to be so closed off, though. Would it have something to do with the humans he's supposed to be working with?

He wouldn't be surprised, honestly.

The day passed with nothing crazy to note on. He took a nap, studied for awhile, picked Pap up from Tori's to take him out to lunch, and dealt with Undyne's undying contest for his brother's attention.

So, basically, the usual.

The day of the interview came quicker than he realized, and he scrambled to make himself look at least presentable by the time he arrived at where Alphys told him to meet. It's under the bridge of the nearby stream, and he waited there awkwardly, checking the time on his phone to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

Apparently, he wasn't.

He didn't notice that there's another monster next to him until they coughed awkwardly and cursed to themselves, adjusting their glasses before affixing him with a steady look.

As it turned out; it's Alphys, and she greeted him curtly before sliding a panel and pressing her hand up to it, and it revealed a door, which lead down into a tunnel. The walls were cold, looked sterile, and made of steel. She started off with a quick, "No questions," before guiding him through.

"Remember, this is simply a preliminary to what the job will really be like. You'll work with humans, in a new environment, with new people." She turned her head over her shoulder. "Do you think you're ready for that?"

"as I'll ever be," Sans replied without a moment of hesitation. Alphys gave him a semblance of a smile before continuing.

"I like your confidence," she complimented quietly, once they reach a door. 

"thank you."

"Best be careful with it," she warns as she opens it, and gestures him inside. The light is bright, and he can barely see what lies ahead.

"It would be wise for you to not get cocky."

And then he's through the doorway, and the door closes quietly on him.

The place was huge. There’re twisting little tunnels filled with water, with what seemed to be humans swimming above him, around him, or in tanks stationed in patterns.

"Be careful," said Alphys as she walked past him, opening a normal door. "You might want to pay more attention to what you see."

Only then did he realize that the humans were faceless, that the water looked too thin, and that there was a fairly obvious coat of magic wrapped around them.

"right. i knew that."

Alphys chuckled lightly as she pulled open a file cabinet and retrieved some papers. She snapped her fingers and gestured for him to sit down, which he does, after checking to make sure a chair was actually there to support him.

"It’s nice to meet you,” Alphys said, before shuffling through the papers in her hands. “It’s not every day that we get someone as young as you to make such good marks on the test. A perfect score, actually.”

“really?” Sans asked, astonished. He did leagues better than he thought. “thank you, alphys.”

“It’s no problem,” she replied. “But what I do want to know is—why _did_ you apply for the test? I don’t mean to cause trouble, it just seems to be that not very many people have interest working here. What makes you different?”

Sans shifted in his seat, mulling over his words. “well…i came here for the opportunity,” he said, slowly. “i was recommended after i finished school, and i was told that it would be a good chance to do some actual research, but...”

“But…?” Alphys prompted.

“but i had no idea there’d be actual human people,” Sans admitted. “and it was weird, at first, to think that i was going to be working with someone i wouldn’t already understand. it’s different than working with a rabbit or a bird monster. i already know who they are, but…humans are different.”

“I understand,” Alphys said.

“but the more i thought about it, the more it became interesting to me. to think that I’d get the chance to work with people I wouldn’t already know…I think that’d teach me something. that’s why I’m here.”

Alphys smiles after a moment. “You make a compelling case, Sans,” she said. “I like your honesty.” She tapped the edge of her pen against her jaw, thinking visibly. “Tell you what, come by The Experiences tomorrow, and I’ll show you around. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

“Of course, this doesn’t mean that you’ve got the job just yet,” she said quickly, just as Sans opened his mouth. “We’ll see how you fair first, just for a week. If you don’t like how things are, you’re free to go.” Alphys stacks the papers, slips them back into the file cabinet, then extends her hand for him to shake.

Sans doesn’t hesitate when he reaches forward for the exchange. They’re on an agreement.

“So, we’ll see you tomorrow, at around seven on the dot,” Alphys says as they walk through the tunnel. “It’s going to be nice to get started with you. We just received someone who would appreciate what you have to offer.”

“cool,” Sans replies as he falls into step with her. They reach the exit and she slides the panel back in, sealing it off. “what’s their name?”

Alphys pulls a card from her front pocket, and hands it over to him. There’s nothing but a name, age, gender, and identification number.

“Frisk,” Alphys says, as Sans scans the card. “Her name is Frisk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, and hopefully I'll see you next week!


	9. The Elephant in the Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _She might be able to wield magic beyond recognition, sure, but…her family. Her everything. They’re gone._   
>  _And she doesn’t know if she’ll get them back._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! So, unfortunately, Frisk and Sans don't meet, but they will, next week. Enjoy!
> 
> [Faithtale](https://faithtaleau.tumblr.com/tagged/comic) belongs to [@momoishy](http://momoishy.tumblr.com/) and [@smollvivi](https://smollvivi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!

Nights at the Labs were always the prettiest.

There’s always the occasional monster roaming around, finishing up a paper, or chatting with their partners, but when the lights dim down, the water’s glow gets the recognition it deserves. It’s like visiting an aquarium at night, only that it’s open and the only deadly thing that lurks around is Mia when she’s upset, but Frisk digresses. Pretty is pretty, and that’s what’s happening now.

Sometimes the passageways are left open, so the humans could mingle at night if they wanted to, but sometimes they’re closed, always on Sundays, because of the weekly checkups. Or so she’s been told.

But tonight they’re open, and Frisk has the chance to explore.

She’s only been on the mid-tier tunnels, since the uppermost tend to worry her when she goes alone, but things feel more social today. On the occasion, she comes by people swimming and talking in two’s and three’s. It feels like there’s some sort of chatter no matter where she goes, and she feels more content with that than rather have it dead silent. Then she’d know she’d be alone.

So she goes on a limb. She kicks up with her legs, into one of the upward ducts, and she swims her way up, often pausing by the glass to catch her breath before continuing, but the view from above is worth it, in the end. Everything looks smaller from where she is. She’s surprised by how much it makes her feel better.

Frisk spots the door over to where she’d been held prior to the Examinators, and sighs wordlessly, thinking back to her locket, to her sister. She must’ve left it there.

A twinge of guilt creeps up her spine, and she hugs herself, reminiscing about her sibling. It feels like she hasn’t been able to properly mourn her without being interrupted. She misses the silly stories and wild adventures and her unyielding support. She wishes she could be more like her.

Frisk can only imagine how it must be back home. What’s going on with her mother? What if she never gets to see her again? Yeah, she might be able to wield magic beyond recognition, sure, but…her family. _Her everything._ They’re gone.

And she doesn’t know if she’ll get them back.

She doesn’t realize she’s silently weeping until she registers how warm her eyes are compared to the surrounding water. It feels good to cry like this, in this space; everything here is cooler, calmer, quiet, but in the good kind of way. Nothing but the water in her ears, the view from above, and her thoughts.

It feels nice to recognize them.

One day, she’s gonna go back. She’s gonna go back to her mother and her cousins and her aunts and uncles, she’s going to go back and things will be different. Of course, some things will remain the same, how her mother always calls for her for dinner, how crowded the house gets whenever her extended family comes over, good food, laughter, good times all around.

Frisk can’t see any of this happening in the near future, no, she’s definitely, irrevocably, _stuck_ , but it’s a promise to herself. It’s nice when you have things to look forward to, or things to work for.

Speaking of which; her new partner.

Frisk would be lying if she said she assumed Alphys would be overseeing her, since Alphys seems to oversee everyone, but turns out, there are other things that call her attention, and sometime in the foreseeable future, Frisk will have someone else to watch over her.

She wonders what they’ll be like. Monsters certainly seem to be amiable with their partners, so it’s not too much to assume that they’d be friendly, too. What would they actually be like is a different question. So far, she’s seen so many different types of monsters that she forgot to count. She can’t possibly decide who’d they’d be if she doesn’t even know them.

That doesn’t exactly stop her from wondering anyway.

“Hey.”

Frisk turns around and spots Amy just behind her, watching the view.

“Oh, hi,” Frisk replies quietly. “I didn’t see you there.”

“I know,” Amy says as Frisk adjusts herself in her seat. “Did I startle you?”

“Not really. I was just up here thinking.”

“I like to come up here and think, too,” Amy replies. “It’s quiet, and the view is nice.”

“Yeah,” Frisk agrees, sighing wistfully. “It’s so pretty.”

The silence that falls after isn’t tense; Amy relaxes against the glass and crosses her legs, and Frisk rests her forehead against the cool surface, watching below.

“Do you ever miss it?” Frisk asks suddenly. Amy turns to face her as she continues. “How things were before you came here?”

Amy hums thoughtfully. “Yeah, I did. Still do, but…there’s not too much to miss. I used to be a foster kid, back when I was in Delaware.”

“Delaware?”

“A state in the U.S. My original mom and dad kept fighting, and I had to be taken out of the house until they either agreed to split up or grow up. In the end though, I guess it didn’t matter what they chose.”

“What happened?”

“Some guys followed me home. I tried to run, but I didn’t make it very far.”

Frisk sighs. “I’m sorry.”

Amy waves it off. “You didn’t do it. Don’t be sorry.”

“I still am, though. The same kind of thing happened to me—well, more like at me and my sister’s treehouse, but still.”

“Yeah,” Amy replies quietly. “I get it.”

“If…if you _could_ leave,” Frisk starts hesitantly, “where would you go?”

“I don’t think I could get back to my mom and dad if I even wanted to.”

“No, not like that,” Frisk interjects. “Forget about how you’d get there, just where you’d go.”

Amy stares at her for a second before glancing down. “Well…I guess I’d go home. Find my parents, see if they’re getting along again.” She deflates, a little. “I don’t know what I’d do if they broke up.”

“If I get out, I think I’d want to stay a while. Just to see what things here are like.”

“Really?” Amy inquires. “There’s nothing all that special about here.”

“My mom’s been wanting to come here her whole life,” Frisk replies. “If I’m going back, I want to at least have things to show her.”

“You could always go to Florida,” Amy muses. “There’s a bunch of stuff to take back with you. Oh! We could leave together. We could go to Delaware, around the towns and I could show you the city, and then we could run around my uncle’s farm—”

“Your uncle’s got a farm?”

“Yeah!” Amy spouts, growing excited. This might just be the most ecstatic Frisk has seen her. “It’s huge—he grows mostly fruit, so in the summer, we’ve got lots of stuff. Blueberries, watermelons, and he grows the _best_ strawberries around.” She puffs up her chest with pride. “He lets me pick them with him, and then later in the day, he lets me make ice cream, all by myself.”

“It sounds like a lot fun,” Frisk murmurs.

“It can be,” Amy says, “though I couldn’t go as much as I’d like because of the custody rules. But if my parents make up, then I’ll get to go as much as I want.”

“I hope you do,” Frisk encourages. “Your uncle sounds nice.”

“He’s the best,” Amy says, wistfully. “But I can’t get back with how I am now. They probably think I’m dead, or somewhere on the other side of the planet.”

“They wouldn’t be too far off the mark with that last one,” Fritz points out.

“True.”

The silence resettles, and Frisk presses her hands up against the glass, watching as one of the office lights click off from below.

“Have you ever wondered what it must’ve been like for them?”

Amy follows her gaze. “The monsters?”

“Yeah. One of them—a big goat monster, real nice—told me about how bad things were. That they were dropping dead constantly, the first few years while they were underground.”

“How so?”

“She told me that if a monster loses hope, they die,” says Frisk, quietly. “Like if you lose too much blood, but they just…turn to dust.”

“That’s sad,” Amy starts, then furrows her brows. “But I don’t see why they have to keep us here.”

“I don’t either. Something about souls and magic and research. They were looking for something specific, and they saw it in mine, I guess.”

“What color are you?”

“Red. They told me it stands for determination.”

“So _that’s_ why they were so careful with you,” Amy muses, looking pensive. “I’m purple. Stands for Perseverance.”

Frisk tilts her head. “Wait…perseverance?”

“No, Perseverance.”

“What did I say?”

Amy snorts. “You’re fine, Frisk. It’s just the way we say it, I guess. But yeah, I’m for Perseverance, and there’s a lot of them like me, here. I guess it’s ‘cause how close Perseverance is to Determination.”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Frisk says. “Soul stuff, mind stuff. All sorts of stuff. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all of it.”

“Well…” Amy says. “That’s okay. You just got here. I’m sure they don’t know what to do, either.”

“Maybe. Maybe that’s why I’m getting an partner tomorrow.”

“Probably. The more hands on deck, the better.”

Frisk sighs. “I know.”

Amy glances at her from the corner of her eye, a worried look coming across her face. She settles in her seat once more, and fidgets with her hands.

“I don’t really know, either. I’ve been here for almost two years, and I don’t know,” she admits, quietly. “But…nothing starts ‘til you take action, right? I’m sure that if we stick together, we’ll be okay.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive,” Amy affirms. She rises, offering Frisk a hand to pull her up. “Don’t you think it’s worth a try?”

Frisk hums, running a hand through her hair, and looking down at the rest of the Labs. Finally, she takes Amy’s hand, and allows her to pull her up.

“Yeah,” Frisk agrees, smiling a little. “I do.”

Amy smiles, and together they make the trek downwards, to the mid-tier tubing to the main, and then back to their Examinators.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Amy asks. “If you have time, after meeting your partner.”

“Yeah,” Frisk replies. “I’ll see you.”

Amy gives her a reassuring hug, then swims off to her Examinator, just as the final lights in the office flicker silent. Everyone’s left for the night, except for the security, but it’s way less people than in the morning.

Frisk swims aimlessly, stretching her arms out in the expanse of the Examinator. She’s short for her age, and it makes the Examinator look spacious. She yawns. The settings were updated, so usually at night, things are warmer, and they might’ve put something in the water to induce her sleep. That, and she’s never had to swim up top, so her muscles are a little strained. She’ll be drowsy in while.

Frisk pulls her arms back, and notices faintly that her tinier cuts had been healed. Probably by the magic, but it’s still so weird. Usually things would take longer, but now she’s devoid completely devoid of cuts. Maybe she’ll be able to take her bandages off.

Her hands find their way to her stomach, but she doesn’t want to remove it, not yet. Maybe let Alphys do it. Maybe Gaster.

Gaster, Gaster, Gaster. He’s really thought provoking. He came undone right in front of her. Twice, even. And it’s not a common occurrence, if what Alph says is true.

What if it’s her fault that he’s like this?

It’s an unpleasant thought, and she feels it come back no matter how much she pushes it away. Alph said it was because she looks like a friend she lost a while ago. But that’s not something Frisk can control, she was born this way.

So why does she feel so guilty?

Frisk sighs, and turns around in her little space, curling in on herself, trying to go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.


	10. Batten Down the Hatches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"His name is Sans."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow, sorry this is late, but on the bright side, Sans and Frisk get to meet! Enjoy!

The usual chatter greets Alphys as she walks inside the building, straightening out her jacket as she heads over to the café front. She orders the usual, one for her and another for Gaster, and doesn’t flinch when he seemingly pops out of nowhere.

“Damn.”

“A for effort,” Alphys says, handing over his coffee with a smile. “How’re you?”

“The more important question is: how are you?” Gaster fires back, retrieving a stirrer and slipping it into his cup. “How did things go with the recruit?”

“Great, actually,” Alphys replies, perking up and pressing between the buttons on the elevator panels. She adjusts her strap bag as the doors open silently for them. “He’s friendly, interested in the job, nice to get to know…I think Frisk would like him.”

“We’ll know in a little while,” Gaster says as he enters the elevator. He raises a questioning brow at Alphys, who shrugs.

“Go on ahead, I’ll bring him in.”

Gaster nods, giving Alphys a quick mock salute as the doors close in front of him.

* * *

 Sans can’t help it.

The card that Alph had given him, laminated and cool and clear, rests in his hands, early into the morning, quietly lit up by the daylight coming in from his window. He runs a bony thumb over the plastic, resting his head in his hands, rustling the duvet. There’s no photo, so he has no clue what she looks like, but she’s sixteen, she’s a girl, and her name is Frisk.

He certainly hopes she knows what she’s getting into, as much as he does. It’s one thing to have a partner, it’s another thing to hear that they had no idea they were getting one. He doesn’t want anything to escalate; he’s worked hard to get here. He doesn’t want it all to be taken away.

“Sans?”

His gaze breaks from the card and lands on his door, where Papyrus is knocking.

“yeah?”

“C’mon! Today’s a big day! You’ve gotta get up!”

“i am u—”

“Nonsense!” Papyrus exclaims, bursting into his room, a determined expression on his face. “You’re not up out of bed, are you?”

“…no?”

“Then I rest my case. Come on!” Papyrus pulls on his arm, the card fluttering uselessly out of Sans’ hand, and Papyrus scoops it up before Sans can reach.

“Frisk…who’s that?” he asks. “Is she the lady who gave you the job?”

Alphys had warned him about speaking about the job to anyone, but stupid is something Papyrus isn’t, and besides, it’s his brother. If there’s one person he’s going to tell, of course it’ll be him. With a silent apology to Alphys, he replies, “i’m supposed to be working with her.”

“You are?” Papyrus wonders. He hands back the card after another look, and Sans places it on the dresser. “I hope she’s nice,” he adds.

“same thing here.” Sans replies, then hoists Papyrus up with one arm. “c’mon, let’s go.”

As Papyrus futilely protests to be put down, Sans takes him downstairs, placing him in his chair and retrieving his usual bowl of cereal for breakfast. The night prior, Sans made sure to tuck him in early, so that they’d be up a little before seven. It doesn’t take long to blip over to Tori’s place, more like less than a second, but he’s never been to the Labs. He’s gotta walk.

Coffee sets in the machine as Papyrus eats his food and watches his morning cartoons, and Sans discards his old newspaper, wrappers on the counter, trying to keep his hands busy. He figures that he has nothing to do, anyway, and heads back to his room, pulling his clothes on and adjusting them in the dresser mirror.

Frisk’s card peeks up at him, and after a moment of deliberation, he pulls it into his jacket pocket, just in case he might need it. From what he’d seen during his interview with Alphys, there were going to be lots of humans there.

Humans. Human beings. He was going to work with them, talk to them, on a constant, daily basis, provided that he didn’t bomb the first week. Anxiety starts to pool in his gut, but he waves it away. It’s just going to be one day, then another, and then, before he knew it, a week. He can work with a week, right?

Right.

Sans heads back to the kitchen, were Papyrus had finished his breakfast, and was turning off the TV. He gives Sans a big thumbs up, then pads over to his room to pull his clothes on.

Sans pours his coffee into a mug, blows, and sips leisurely. He decides to think about the monsters that he’ll also get to meet, and the thought it a little more reassuring. Not to mention Alphys. Or Gaster, but something about him feels a little off, compared to humans. At least Sans knows what to expect when it comes to them. But he doesn’t have anything to base Gaster on. He’s never met him a day in his life, and Alphys didn’t even mention him during the interview.

Before his thoughts can delve any further, Sans finishes his coffee and dumps the mug into the sink as Papyrus comes in, pulling on his backpack and adjusting his cardigan. “Ready to go!” he exclaims.

Papyrus takes hold of his brother’s hand, and the two of them blink away into quiet.

* * *

 Everything is silent, until it isn’t.

Frisk wakes up surely, slowly, still unused to sleeping around in water. When she rubs her eyes, she can see monsters walking to and fro, the outlines of humans in their Examinators. The tubes are looking empty, which means that the morning’s officially started.

She stretches, and swims around in loops, practicing. She gets tired of lagging behind, especially when everyone else is seems to be going around at a usual pace.

Alphys doesn’t greet her this morning, and Frisk was half-expecting, half-dreading her partner to be in her place, but instead, it’s just Gaster, who waves at her from the ground.

“Good morning,” he says. “Sorry, it’s just me, Alphys is fetching your partner. Would you like to know his name?”

_His_ name.

Frisk nods eagerly.

“Sans,” Gaster answers, flicking a switch on the Heart. Her status appears almost instantaneously, and Gaster absentmindedly records everything down on a clipboard. “His name is Sans.”

With that, he gives her a thumbs up, and then she’s free to go.

Amy’s cheery when Frisk meets up with her, chatting about what’s coming up as they head towards the common area. “We don’t get new guys around here every often,” she explains. “It’s gonna be interesting to meet them.”

“Gaster told me his name is Sans,” Frisk says. “That’s all I really know.”

“Really?” Amy asks, cocking her head. “Well, all we have to do is wait and see.”

“Yeah.”

They soon meet up with Janine, who then runs into Mia, and then soon, the rest of the gang comes up. They exchange greetings, hugging and playfully nudging each other, before turning to Frisk.

“So, how are you?” Janine asks, smiling. “Still getting your sea legs?”

“Can you really call it sea legs if we’re nowhere near a body of water?” Carmen retorts.

“You know what I mean, doofus.”

“Yeah,” Frisk replies, giving them a lopsided smile. “I’m doing my best, I still can’t exactly get the hang of it, but I’m getting better.”

“Great,” says Janine. “It’s not easy at first, but you’ll get it with repetition.”

“Have you heard about her partner?” Amy chirps. “His name’s Sans.”

“Huh,” Mia murmurs, then shrugs. “I’ll take it.”

“He’s new?” Mabel asks, butting into the conversation. “ Like, new, new? Fresh from the outside?”

“Yeah,” Amy confirms.

“I haven’t been here as long as they have,” Mabel starts, “but we almost never get any new people here. Wonder what he’s like?”

“I do,” Frisk says, leaning against the glass. “And he’s going to be here soon.”

Frisk shakes her head to herself, trying to alleviate her worries. It’s just someone she’s working with. He’s not going to do anything.

But if what they say is true, then this is just another one of the Labs’ milestones to add to her list. She’s made Gaster deteriorate, she has the soul they’re looking for, she’s getting a new partner, and they haven’t had one for a while.

If anything, Frisk notes, if that list gets any bigger, then there’ll be other things to worry about than who’d she be assigned to.

* * *

 Sans manages to find his way to the Labs fairly easy. It’s busy and bustling, and from his point of view, it looks like a normal building, full of normal people, working normal jobs.

That illusion crumbles when he spots Alphys walking towards him.

“Welcome,” she says. “This is the Labs. What do you think?”

“cool.” Is the first thing that comes to mind, and he immediately regrets it, despite Alphys’ chuckle.

“I suppose it is, even though we haven’t really gotten there yet.” Alphys motions with her arm. “Follow me.”

Sans falls into step with her as they pass gaggles of monsters, until they get to an elevator, where she presses against the space between the buttons, in what looks to be in a certain pattern.

The doors open soundlessly, and despite the monsters around them, only the two of them walk onboard.

“it’s just us?” Sans asks, confused. “don’t all these guys work here, too?”

“Not exactly, no,” Alphys answers as she adjusts her bag. “I mean, they do work in this building, but not in the same place that we’re headed.” The elevator chimes, quietly. “Which is right here.”

The door opens, and Alphys guides him through a hallway, then a set of doors, which open automatically at the press of a panel. She stops at the threshold, and beckons him inside.

“This is where the magic happens,” Alphys says, smiling. “Literally.”

He isn’t prepared for the view.

The floors are immaculate, sleek and clean, the monsters he sees are commonplace, but the first thing to catch his attention is the reflection of the water, the passageways, _everything_. Humans swimming up above, some so high he can’t make out the details of their faces, and big, hulking, patterned columns filled with water, a human person in almost every one.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Alphys reminisces. “It gets better every time I see it. Come on, I’ll walk you around.

Alphys gives him a guided tour, displaying the offices and providing him with information on the humans and giving a short explanation on why they’re in tanks—apparently called ‘Blaster Examinators’.

“We need them in an environment in which they can be watched over,” Alphys says as they pass the offices. She waves at a bunny monster before turning back to Sans. “This way, we can keep track of their SOUL, their traits, basically, everything when it comes to their condition. We’ve been trying new ways to keep them comfortable, and it usually shows whenever we examine their status.”

“right,” Sans says. “so, how do i play into this?”

“Frisk is special,” Alphys says, outright. “I’m not even gonna beat around the bush about it. She’s been hurt, she’s lost someone, and right now, she could use a friend, but also one that has shown be to exemplary when it comes to composition of humans and monsters. You fit the role well.”

“what happened to her?” Sans asked, worriedly.

“It’s not exactly something I should say yet, so I’ll leave it to her to tell you.”

“alright.”

A pang of sympathy runs through him when he imagines her plight. He can’t even fathom loosing anyone he loves. He wonders how things are for her.

The monsters he meets are friendly, and, surprisingly, if he looked at a monster that worked here and compared them to someone outside, he wouldn’t be able to tell that they were working in a place like this, so, that solves his initial trepidation about the people he’d be working with.

“You can usually find me in my office, if you have a question, or you can ask anyone else that’s there. Everyone here is friendly, so don’t be shy when it comes to knowing something. If you need a coffee, you can head to the café up top,” Alphys continues, on a lighter note, clicking her pen in her hand. “But just make sure you let us know, we don’t want you to run off on your first week here.”

“uhm,” Sans starts, “what about the people up there? don’t they know that they’re above the labs?”

“Nope,” Alphys says with a pop. “Upstairs is actually a normal office building, we simply stay down here. No one’s allowed down here without access.”

“right…” sans said slowly. “but the elevator…?”

“Magical fingerprint,” Alphys explains as they stop by what’s apparently her office. There’s a couple sheets of paper lying around, a bed stationed to medical equipment, and it makes Sans wonder. Alphys said Frisk was hurt, but he didn’t know it was to the point of needing so much to patch her up. What could’ve happened?

She picks up a clipboard on her desk, and the two of them leave the office. Alphys hands it to him, along with a pen, and it’s ready for him—it has his name, Frisk’s name, her date of birth, gender, BMI…everything.

In less than a few minutes, he’s going to be face-to face with a human.

Alphys takes him through the maze of Blaster Examinators, settling next to one with a large control panel, larger than the rest, actually.

“This,” Alphys says, proudly, “is the Heart of the lab. It controls just about everything here. The water temperature, simulation, stimulants…you name it. We’ve modified it so that it can also provide control to one Examinator, which just so happens to be Frisk’s.”

“woah.” Buttons and switches and screens galore, all of them marked, labelled, color coded. Alphys shows him the area he’ll be working on, which occupies a smaller space, compared to the overall area of the machine. Alphys excuses herself to find Frisk, heading off into the web of Examinators and controls.

Sans decides not to touch anything, instead walking up to the glass and resting his hand upon the surface. It’s cool to the touch, and he tries to imagine what it must be like, swimming around in water so bright it could blind you under the right conditions.

Waterfall. It’s so hard to imagine that so much of the water that was there now occupies a space that’s above the surface. He doesn’t have any memories of the underground; he was born up top, and the only person he has to look up to for info was mainly Toriel.

He tries to wonder about how this must make her feel.

“Sans?” Alphys calls, pacing over towards him. “Heads up—she’s coming your way!”

Sans’ looks up, stepping back, watching as a figure makes their way along the lower systems, before swimming into the Examinator, catching his surprised gaze.

Steadily, with effort, she lowers, moving across the space to touch the glass above him, staring at him with quiet interest. She’s tan, with dark brown hair that billows around her face as she moves, and slowly, she opens her mouth, and says;

“Hi.”

She gives him a little wave.

It almost startles him, how clearly he can hear her. He almost forgets to reply.

“hi.”

“Frisk, this is Sans, and Sans, this is Frisk,” Alphys announces smiling. “You two will be working together for the time being.” She then turns to Sans, explaining his adjustment as the days pass. He’ll meet with the other monsters, learn how to use the heart, work on his relations with Frisk, and then eventually—meet Gaster.

And suddenly he’s not as worried about it, anymore. Nothing went wrong for him this time, and he can’t imagine what could go wrong, now.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Frisk says, catching his attention, and she fidgets, seemingly unsure of whether or not to extend a hand to shake, or to wave her hand again. She settles on placing her hand on the glass, directly in front of him. Sans hesitates for a moment, then presses his hand against the surface, as well.

“it’s nice to meet you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, it starts! Thank you for being patient!


	11. First Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk's at a loss for words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! I wanna thank you guys so much for being so patient with me. You're the best!!!
> 
> I apologize for any formatting mistskes; the internet's fickle at my place, so I had to upload this chapter via my phone. Hopefully next week won't be the same, but I digress. Enjoy!

Everything seems to be going smoothly.

There’s a partner for Frisk now, which means Alphys will be free, so they can get to  
work on deciding how exactly to determine the limits and basics of Frisk’s SOUL.

Gaster hasn’t met him yet, but he’s interested in the prospect of what Sans can do. It’s  
not every day that someone passes the test with complete accuracy.

His attention directs itself to Frisk, quietly conversing with Sans from inside her  
Examinator. She looks pensive, almost intrigued, even, before smiling lightly.

Footsteps alert him to Alphys’ presence, and he glances at her, leaning on an office  
door frame. “So, I’ve got them introduced,” she says. “For today, I’ll try and show Sans  
how things work around here. It’ll just be a few tests with the main controls, nothing  
he shouldn’t be able to handle, and then we’ll see how he starts fairing with everything  
else.”

She cocks her head at Gaster’s nod. “What about you?”

“I’m just thinking,” he muses. “About the extractor. I know it’s early, but the sooner we  
get it up and running, the sooner we’ll be able to see what she can do.”

“What Frisk can do, you mean?” Alphys asks. She taps her chin with her forefinger. “If  
I’m honest, I’m interested in what would happen if the others got in touch with  
Determination. I mean,” she backtracks, “I know all humans have it, but what would  
they do if they had more?”

“I understand, don’t worry,” Gaster says offhandedly, and Alphys smiles, assured. “The possibilities are endless, so far,” he remarks. “Which is why I would appreciate your help in updating the machine. I know it’s much to ask.”

“Which is why you didn’t need to,” Alphys replies cheekily, pushing up her glasses. “I  
was already planning on helping you out.”

“Oh,” Gaster says, his surprise in contrast to Alphys’ knowing smile. “Well, then, thank  
you.”

“No problem.”

* * *

Frisk’s at a loss for words.

“You’re…a skeleton?”

It’s tough to disguise her initial surprise—she thought Gaster was the only skeleton  
monster, but there’s another right now, his name is Sans, and he’s her partner. He’s  
definitely leagues shorter than Gaster, though. Maybe even her height, if she squints.

“yeah, i am,” he says, quietly, shifting his weight on his feet. “i hope that’s not a  
problem…?”

“Oh, no, no, of course it isn’t!” Frisk says hurriedly, a worried expression overcoming  
her face. “I just…I thought there weren’t many skeletons around here. Gaster’s the only  
one I’ve met.”

“oh.” he says, scratching the dome of his head. “right. sorry.”

“No, you’re fine,” she replies. “Really, it’s okay. I was the one who didn’t know what to  
say, you don’t need to apologize.”

“right,” he replies, unsure, his hands bunched into his jacket pockets. “so, uhm…do you always stay in there?”

She sees through his attempt at making conversation easily enough, but doesn’t mind  
it, smiling lightly. “Yeah,” she replies. “They can watch me in here and pick up on…my  
everything, really.” She gestures to the Heart. “I don’t know how it does it, but they’re  
able to check on me using that.”

“huh.” He walks up to it, unwilling to touch the switches, but curious nonetheless. “i  
was aware that they fixed it up for you, but i didn’t know it could do so much…what  
does it show you?” he inquires, turning back to Frisk.

“Well,” she starts, slowly. “My soul, for one thing, my traits, my heartbeat, blood  
pressure, controls for the water…but that’s really just a guess. There’s definitely loads  
more it can do, I mean, look at all the controls,” she offers. “Even though there’s a  
space for me, I still wonder what the rest of it does.”

Sans hums, affixing the Heart with one last curious look before turning back to Frisk.

“is…is it alright if i ask you a couple more questions?”

“Sure.”

“how are you able to hear me?”

“I can’t hear you completely clearly,” Frisk points out. “Sometimes it’s difficult to hear  
with the water in my ears, but I guess it has to do with whatever they did to the glass. I  
already know the water’s magical.”

“huh.”

“Can you hear me?” Frisk wonders curiously.

“yeah, i can. it’s a little muffled, but i hear you.”

“Cool.”

“cool.”

The silence that follows is punctured, unsure, awkward and hesitant. Sans diverts his  
gaze to the rest of the lab, and Frisk floats around in her space, crossing her arms  
thoughtfully.

“y’know,” he starts, and Frisk turns her head to look. “this place is really pretty. for a  
lab.”

Frisk smiles a little. “It is,” she agrees. “I think it’s prettier at night, though. The ceiling  
lights are off and the water glows more.”

Sans nods. “i believe it. it’s just...hard. to imagine where they could get so much water  
from.”

“Somewhere underground, Waterfall, I think,” Frisk replies, recalling her first few days.

“really?” Sans asks, cocking his head. “makes sense. waterfall was a pretty place.”

“Oh.” She steadies herself, placing a hand on the glass. “Have you been to the  
Underground?”

“nah, i was born up top, but I’ve heard stories.”

Stories…she can only really imagine what else must’ve happened there, other than  
what she’s been told. It’s new and tentative, but not necessarily unpleasant. It’d be  
nice to learn more, she figures.

“Did Alphys show you around?” she asks when she spots his gaze wandering. She feels silly for making conversation considering Sans had done so, too, but she still does, anyway. “Apparently we don’t get new workers often.”

Sans chuckles. “so I noticed.”

“How were you able to land up here?” she asks curiously.

He shrugs. “had to take a test.”

“What did you get?”

“uhm…well…” he glances to the side, nervously.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Frisk backtracks. “You don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”

“it’s alright. But, uh…it was completely accurate. perfect score.”

“Wow,” Frisk marvels. “That’s…that’s awesome. I definitely wouldn’t be able to get that if I were still in school.”

He chuckles sheepishly, and Frisk thinks she can see the start of something purple  
flushing along his face. “thank you.”

She gives him a lopsided smile. “It’s no problem.”

“i…i’ll be honest,” Sans starts, his index finger tapping along his cheek, gently. Frisk  
can’t help but look at the bones making it up. It’s just…odd. “you’re the first human  
i’ve ever really met, and I was kinda worried that this would flop, but you seem pretty  
chill.”

“I was…a little nervous about meeting you,” Frisk admits. “But…I’m glad I got to. You’re  
probably one of the first monsters that hasn’t treated my existence like it’s some crazy coincidence. I mean, you’ll know soon enough, but—forget what I’m saying.” Frisk  
shakes her head. “I think you’re pretty cool. Even if I just met you.”

Sans blinks in surprise, then smiles. “glad the feeling’s mutual.”

“Me too,” she replies, then glances up towards the offices. There’s a flicker in her vision, and once she recognizes who it is, she turns back to Sans.

“Alphys is heading over,” she says, and Sans glances over his shoulder at the approaching scientist. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow? Or later. At some point.”

“yeah.” Sans chuckles. “some point. see you then.”

Frisk kicks with her legs and swims upwards, and into the rest of the recreational tubes.

Alphys smiles as she walks up towards him.

“I assume you two got along?” she asks, almost expectantly.

“yeah,” Sans replies. “she’s nice.”

“That’s great,” Alphys says, smiling amiably.

“Alright, now that I’ve given you a rundown of the basics, I’d love to show you around to everyone.”

* * *

The monsters, Sans realizes, to his absolute lack of surprise, are welcoming.

He doesn't see why he was initially so worried; they’re intrigued and friendly, and don’t mind asking him about his interest in the lab, astounded with his report on the test, congratulating him and wishing him well in his work. Monsters. The usual.

“I don’t really know if you noticed,” Alphys says, “But each Examinator comes with a  
little plaque on the side with the human’s name. Sometimes they like to write their  
own, sometimes they don’t. I love seeing what they come up with. I think it’s  
interesting.”

“a lot of things about humans seem interesting,” he replies. Alphys flashes him a smile.

“Aren’t they?” Alphys asks, sighing. “The opportunity to see how and why and where  
they tick, observing the differences in their choices. It says something when monsters are more like each other than humans are to themselves, in aspect of behavior. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there’s literally billions of them.”

“huh.” Sans muses. “would the same thing happen to us, if we got to that amount?”

“Honestly? Probably,” Alphys replies. “Even if we’re similar behavior-wise, people will be people. But it’s been a decade and a half, there’s way more of us now than  
there were in the Underground. We’re bound to pass the billion point eventually.”

“do you think it has something to do with SOUL attributes?” he asks.

“Definitely much to do with SOUL attributes,” she replies. “It’s just—we need things like  
love and HoPe and compassion to exist, but humans don’t need all that. Which is what  
makes them so durable. The intent behind what they do often doesn’t physically harm  
them, but, you know, it’s different for us.”

“true,” Sans hums.

“So then, I’m wondering, if, or, actually, when we hit the billion mark, will we stay similar because of the traits of our SOULs? Or because of how large we are in numbers  
and the fact that, monsters differ from each other either way?”

“…someone’s has their thinking cap on.”

She laughs a little. “Gaster might’ve spiked my coffee. It’s such a surreal feeling,  
though, to see the differences of people we weren’t even sure we were going to meet.  
What about you?” she asks, as they trek around the lab. She gets cut off from his  
response when a bunny monster catches her attention.

He creases his brows a little. What about him? He knows that he’s in it for the research,  
because of his recommendation as he moved up in his studies, but other than that,  
there’s little else. All he knows is, he wants to learn. What about, he isn’t exactly sure.

Alphys returns with a smile. “Sorry about that. But please, continue. I’d like to know  
what you think.”

“well…i’m thinking that i don’t really know what i want to find out yet,” he starts out  
slowly, “but there’re still things i’d like to learn.”

Alphys nods. “Of course, of course. That’s perfectly fine. I didn’t make you feel  
pressured to answer, did I?”

Sans shakes his head. “you’re good.”

She beams. “Great!”

Alphys redirects him to the Heart, making their way to Frisk’s Examinator. She isn’t  
inside, but Alphys is quick to display the functions.

“These control the temperature,” she explains, towards a thin, stiff, joystick with a pink label. “You move around and watch the screen.” There’s a strip of numbers, and the  
indicator treks through them before landing on the initial setting. “When you’re done,  
select okay, and leave it as is.”

There’s another for sleep, which automatically warms the water and slips a sedative of sorts, and then one for a status update, which provides a report on her condition, a third for healing magic for possible injuries—to Sans’ surprise, she actually shuts that  
one off.

“Completely forgot about that one,” she murmurs. “I’ll have to do something about  
that.”

“maybe a failsafe?” he offers. “like, if it’s still on after a certain amount of time,  
automatically cut it off. something like that.”

Alphys smiles sheepishly. “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The rest are fairly simple. There’s a small dial amid the controls, and Alphys demonstrates how, with the status switch flipped, you could scroll through information. There’s others; to control the pressure or the salinity or necessary vitamins or nutrients.

“Some of the humans we’ve…met, are malnourished,” she explains. “And since they’re in the water all the time, it’s simple to get them what they need. We’ve also been  
experimenting with the types of food they receive, or if they can get what they need  
from the water without having to transfer human food through their Examinators, but  
it’s an aspect.” She waves her hand. “But, that’s it, for now. Would you like to try?”

The next few hours are dedicated to his trial on the Heart, and setting up his own little  
office with the rest of the employees. His worries quell by the minute, and once it’s  
time to go pick up Papyrus, he’s certain he’s going to enjoy his time working there.

Something comes to him as he blips to Toriel’s place. The call from Gaster. He’d been  
meaning to ask her about it for a while now, but the chance never really came up. Of  
course, now that he’s started his first day, it’s not like he can’t ask her now, right? Regardless of whether or not he keeps the job, it won’t hurt to try.

That in mind, he knocks on her door. It’s usually always the same time he comes  
around to pick Papyrus up, but this time, it’s Undyne who opens the door.

“There you are, ya dork!”

Regardless of her attitude, he grins down at her, anyway. “sorry. am i late to the party?”

“More like uninvited!”

Sans chuckles, and soft laughter erupts from behind Undyne. Tori emerges into the  
doorway, gently chastising her before sending her inside.

“evenin’.”

“The same to you, too,” she says, smiling lightly. “Would you mind coming in? I’ve  
something to take from the oven, and I don’t trust Undyne to watch herself for a  
minute.”

There’s an indignant “Hey!” as Sans laughs and walks inside.

The place is homey, and the living room is lightly littered with crayons and paper, little  
kids scattered about, playing with toys or drawing, chatting amiably. Papyrus is in the  
dead center, a red crayon in his hand as he talks to M.K. He catches Sans’s attention  
and waves. Sans smiles and gives him a mock salute.

Toriel heads into the kitchen and opens the oven, the familiar smell of her  
butterscotch-cinnamon pie permeating the air. Sans leans on the counter, tapping his  
foot, unsure of how to continue.

If she hadn’t already said anything about it, especially when Papyrus was so hopeful in  
him landing the job, maybe she didn’t want anyone else to know.

He squares his shoulders. There’s only really one way to find out.

“hey…tori?”

“Yes?”

He shuffles in place. “can i talk to you about something?”

She settles the pie on a tray to cool, smoothing out her clothes and turning back to him with a smile. “Of course,” she says, then catches his expression. “Is something  
wrong?”

“not really,” he answers, wondering if he was looking too concerned. “it’s just…” he  
sighs. “what do you know about the labs?”


	12. Not a Chapter

This isn't a chapter; this is a message. I'm unsure if I'm going to be continuing this fic. I know I wanted to finish it, but as the weeks pass I've been losing interest, and school has been riding up on my back. The writing quality isn't as it should, and I want to apologize.

For everyone who's stayed and read this fic, I want to thank you. So much. Honestly, you guys are the best, but it's all really just me. I'm so sorry.

I want to keep writing, of course, It's just...writing this isn't fun anymore.

Thank you, all of you, for understanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are awesome. Thank you for reading my fic.


End file.
